Definition of "holotype" [holotype]

• The single specimen or illustration designated as the type for naming a species or subspecies or used as the basis for naming a species or subspecies when no type has been selected. Also called type. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A holotype is single specimen or "illustration" designated as the type for naming a species or subspecies."
• "Theretairus (Simpson 1926) is known from two specimens (the holotype is a single dentary from Como Bluff), although some consider it to be a juvenile form of Opisthias."
• "MCZ 1102, the holotype skull of Triceratops "eurycepahlus" Shlaikjer 1935 (now considered conspecific with T. horridus)."