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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Cephalopoda \Ceph'a*lop"o*da\ (s[e^]f'[.a]*l[o^]p"[-o]*d[.a]), n. pl. [NL., gr. Gr. kefalh' head + -poda: cf. F. c['e]phalopode.] (Zo["o]l.) The highest class of Mollusca.
Note: They have, around the front of the head, a group of elongated muscular arms, which are usually furnished with prehensile suckers or hooks. The head is highly developed, with large, well organized eyes and ears, and usually with a cartilaginous brain case. The higher forms, as the cuttlefishes, squids, and octopi, swim rapidly by ejecting a jet of water from the tubular siphon beneath the head. They have a pair of powerful horny jaws shaped like a parrot's beak, and a bag of inklike fluid which they can eject from the siphon, thus clouding the water in order to escape from their enemies. They are divided into two orders, the {Dibranchiata}, having two gills and eight or ten sucker-bearing arms, and the {Tetrabranchiata}, with four gills and numerous arms without suckers. The latter are all extinct except the {Nautilus}. See {Octopus}, {Squid}, {Nautilus}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
Cephalopoda
noun: octopuses; squids; cuttlefish; pearly nautilus [syn: {class Cephalopoda}]
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