[Elamur Dictionary](https://md.dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/nautilus/)

[dictionaries](https://md.dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [English](https://md.dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/) / [N](https://md.dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/n/) / nautilus

# nautilus

noun (a nautilus, nautiluses or nautili)

«nautilus» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. A sea animal related to the octopus and squid, which lives inside a coiled, striped shell divided into chambers. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/nautilus/#m1)
2. Nautilus: the name of famous submarines, including Captain Nemo's in Jules Verne's novel and the first nuclear submarine (a name). [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/nautilus/#m2)

### In the lessons

In science lessons the nautilus is an example of a mollusc and a «living fossil», as its relatives lived over 400 million years ago. Its shell is a spiral, used in maths to show spirals in nature. It floats by changing the gas in its shell chambers, like a submarine.

### Examples

- A nautilus has up to ninety small tentacles. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/nautilus/#x1)
- The nautilus shell is a beautiful spiral. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/nautilus/#x2)
- The nautilus moves up and down by filling its chambers with gas or water. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/nautilus/#x3)
- In «Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea», the submarine is called the Nautilus. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/nautilus/#x4)
- We saw a nautilus at the aquarium. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/nautilus/#x5)
- Ammonites were ancient animals like the nautilus. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/nautilus/#x6)
- She had watched jelly-fish and nautilus swimming a little way below the surface, and beautiful coloured sea-weeds floating about; but that was all. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/nautilus/#x7)

### Note

Plural: nautiluses or nautili. Pronounced «NAW-ti-lus». A myth: the nautilus shell is often said to follow the «golden ratio» exactly, but real measurements show it does not.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «nautilus» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/nautilus/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«nautilus» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/nautilus.html) on Mova free.