tapeworm

Any of various long segmented parasitic flatworms of the class Cestoda that lack a digestive system and have hooks or suckers for attaching to the intestines of vertebrates, including humans.

An entozoic parasitic worm, of flattened or tape-like form and indeterminate length, consisting of many separable joints, found in the adult state in the alimentary canal of most vertebrated animals.

Any one of numerous species of cestode worms belonging to Tænia and many allied genera. The body is long, flat, and composed of numerous segments or proglottids varying in shape, those toward the end of the body being much larger and longer than the anterior ones, and containing the fully developed sexual organs. The head is small, destitute of a mouth, but furnished with two or more suckers (which vary greatly in shape in different genera), and sometimes, also, with hooks for adhesion to the walls of the intestines of the animals in which they are parasitic. The larvæ (see cysticercus) live in the flesh of various creatures, and when swallowed by another animal of the right species develop into the mature tapeworm in its intestine. See Illustration in Appendix.

Any parasitical worm of the class Cestoda, which infest the intestines of both animals and humans.

A broad fish tapeworm, Diphyllobothrium latum.

ribbonlike flatworms that are parasitic in the intestines of humans and other vertebrates