Origin: Latin suffix -ate
Vertebrate has 4 different meanings across 2 categories:
animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton with a segmented spinal column and a large brain enclosed in a skull or cranium
"When we classify mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish as vertebrates, we are acknowledging that they all possess an internal skeleton protecting their nervous system."
An animal having a backbone.
"The biologist carefully classified the newly discovered species as a vertebrate because it possessed a distinct spinal column."
having a backbone or spinal column
"fishes and amphibians and reptiles and birds and mammals are verbetrate animals"
Having a backbone.
"After learning that sharks are vertebrates, my teacher explained that they possess internal skeletons just like humans do."
The word comes from the French vertébré, which was borrowed from the Latin vertebrātus. In its original form, it meant "jointed."