the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
noun-plural. An extensive artificial group of invertebrates, having all the parts arranged radially around the vertical axis of the body, and the various organs repeated symmetrically in each ray or spheromere.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
In Cuvier's system of classification, the fourth grand branch of the animal kingdom, containing “the radiated animals or zoöphytes.”
In later classifications, with various limitations and restrictions of sense 1.