Animal

Animals are a main cluster of organisms, classified as the kingdom. In common they are multi­cellular, capable of locomotion, responsive to their surroundings, and feed by overriding other organisms. Their body plan becomes fixed as they expand, usually in the early hours on in their growth as embryos, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on. More particularly, animals can be defined as heterotrophic eukaryotes without cell walls, which shift through a blastula stage in early development.

The word "animal" comes from the Latin sound animal, of which is the plural, and is derivative from anima, meaning "vital breath" or "soul". An ordinary usage of the term may be limited to so-called inferior animals and refer to humans only in a disapproving or humorous context.