-pod

Also ‑poda, ‑pode, and ‑podium.

Foot or feet.

Greek pous, pod‑, foot.

A few words in ‑pod refer to stands or supports with a given number of feet, such as tripod, a three-legged one for supporting a camera or other apparatus, and monopod, a one-legged support for a camera or fishing rod. However, the majority are names for animals, mostly crustaceans, having particular characteristics; for some common examples, see the list below.

All the examples in that list are members of groups whose systematic names end in ‑poda (Arthropoda, Gastropoda, Decapoda). Other examples are Chilopoda (Greek kheilos, lip), a class of myriapod arthropods which comprises the centipedes, and Scaphopoda (Greek skaphē, boat), a class of molluscs that comprises the tusk shells.

A small number of words end in the variant form ‑pode, such as megapode (Greek megas, great), a large ground-dwelling Australasian and SE Asian bird, and the antipodes (Greek anti, against), Australia and New Zealand as viewed by inhabitants of the northern hemisphere. Some others end in ‑podium, such as lycopodium (Greek lukos, wolf, because of the claw-like shape of the root), a plant of a genus that includes the common clubmosses; parapodium (Greek para‑, subsidiary), each of a number of paired muscular bristle-bearing appendages in a polychaete worm.

Examples of words in -pod
Word origins are all from Greek.

amphipod

a member of an order of chiefly marine crustaceans

amphi‑, of both kinds, because some legs are specialized for swimming and some for feeding

arthropod

a member of a large phylum of invertebrate animals that includes insects, spiders, crustaceans, and their relatives

arthron, joint

brachiopod

a member of a phylum of marine invertebrates that comprises the lamp shells

brakhiōn, arm

branchiopod

a member of a class of small aquatic crustaceans that includes water fleas and fairy shrimps, which are distinguished by having gills upon the feet

brankhia, gills

cephalopod

a member of a large class of active predatory molluscs comprising octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish, which have a ring of tentacles around a beaked mouth

kephalē, head

copepod

a member of a large class of small aquatic crustaceans with paddle-like feet

kōpē, handle, oar

decapod

a member of an order of crustaceans which includes shrimps, crabs, and lobsters, which have five pairs of walking legs

deka, ten

gastropod

a member of a large class of molluscs which includes snails, slugs, whelks, and all terrestrial kinds

gastēr, gastr‑, stomach, because of the position of the foot

hexapod

a member of a class of six-legged arthropods that comprises the insects

hex, six

macropod

a plant-eating marsupial mammal of an Australasian family that comprises the kangaroos and wallabies

makros, long, large

myriapod

an arthropod of a group that includes the centipedes, millipedes, and related animals

murias, muriad‑, from murioi, 10,000

ornithopod

a mainly bipedal herbivorous dinosaur

ornis, ornith‑, bird