Definition of "polychete" [polychete]

• Any of various annelid worms of the class Polychaeta, including mostly marine worms such as the lugworm, and characterized by fleshy paired appendages tipped with bristles on each body segment. (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 paper in last week's Science1 was about the temperature tolerance of the polychete worm Paralvinella sulfincola that lives near deep-sea hydrothermal vents."