Having the shape, form, or appearance of a spider; resembling a spider in structure or pattern.
From 'aranea' (spider) plus the suffix '-form' meaning 'having the shape of.' This Latin construction is widely used in scientific language to describe things that resemble other organisms.
Scientists use '-form' suffixes constantly to describe resemblances—'uniform,' 'cruciform,' 'araneiform'—and it's useful because it lets them describe appearances without implying evolutionary relationships, which is important when looking at things that just happen to look alike!
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