Starfish vs. Clam — What's the Difference?

Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars.

Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds.

A marine echinoderm (invertebrate) with five or more radiating arms. The undersides of the arms bear tube feet for locomotion and, in predatory species, for opening the shells of molluscs.

A marine bivalve mollusc with shells of equal size.

Any of various marine echinoderms of the class Asteroidea, characteristically having a thick, often spiny body with five arms extending from a central disk. Also called asteroid, sea star.

A dollar.

Any of various asteroids or other echinoderms (not in fact fish) with usually five arms, many of which eat bivalves or corals by everting their stomach.

Dig for or collect clams

(obsolete) Any many-armed or tentacled sea invertebrate, whether cnidarian, echinoderm, or cephalopod.

Abruptly stop talking

(slang) A woman (or, less commonly, a gay man) who reluctantly takes part in sexual intercourse, and lies on the back while spreading the limbs.

Any of various usually burrowing marine and freshwater bivalve mollusks chiefly of the subclass Heterodonta, including members of the families Veneridae and Myidae, many of which are edible.

The anus. Category:en:Pornography

The soft edible body of such a mollusk.

(intransitive) To assume a splayed-out shape, like that of a starfish.

(Informal) A close-mouthed person, especially one who can keep a secret.

(transitive) To form into a splayed-out shape, like that of a starfish.

(Slang) A dollar

Any one of numerous species of echinoderms belonging to the class Asterioidea, in which the body is star-shaped and usually has five rays, though the number of rays varies from five to forty or more. The rays are often long, but are sometimes so short as to appear only as angles to the disklike body. Called also sea star, five-finger, and stellerid.

A clamp or vise.

The dollar fish, or butterfish.

To hunt for clams.

Echinoderms characterized by five arms extending from a central disk

A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; for example pl=s (Mya arenaria), hard clams (Mercenaria mercenaria), sea clams or hen clam (Spisula solidissima), and other species. The name is said to have been given originally to the Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.

Strong pincers or forceps.

A kind of vise, usually of wood.

A dollar.

A Scientologist.

A vagina.

(slang) In musicians' parlance, a wrong or misplaced note.

(informal) One who clams up; a taciturn person, one who refuses to speak.

Mouth (Now found mostly in the expression shut one's clam)

Clamminess; moisture

To dig for clams.

To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.

To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.

To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.

Clammy.

A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; as, the long clam (Mya arenaria), the quahog or round clam (Venus mercenaria), the sea clam or hen clam (Spisula solidissima), and other species of the United States. The name is said to have been given originally to the Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.

Strong pinchers or forceps.

A kind of vise, usually of wood.

Claminess; moisture.

A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.

To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.

To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.

To produce, in bell ringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.

Burrowing marine mollusk living on sand or mud

A piece of paper money worth one dollar

Flesh of either hard-shell or soft-shell clams

Gather clams, by digging in the sand by the ocean