noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any of a group of extinct aquatic colonial invertebrates, of the class Graptolithina, from the Cambrian and Carboniferous periods.

   "The samples were black shale, and on the shales were some ancient fossils called graptolites."

Example

More examples

"The samples were black shale, and on the shales were some ancient fossils called graptolites."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek γραπτός (graptós, “painted, marked with letters”) + -lite.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.