How Many Legs Does an Octopus Have? Getting to Know the Features and Uses of an Octopus's Eight Arms

An octopus has eight legs, though strictly speaking, these eight "legs" are called arms in biological terms. The octopus belongs to the cephalopods, and its arms grow around its head, which is how the group got its name. People also call it the eight-clawed fish, and its eight arms are its most striking feature.

Each arm is densely covered with suckers, which have a strong gripping power and can also sense the objects they touch. The arms contain a large number of nerves, so even without relying entirely on the brain's commands, they can independently carry out actions such as grasping and exploring, making them extremely nimble. When in danger, some octopuses will even actively shed an arm to protect themselves, and the lost arm can grow back after a period of time.

An octopus's arms are not the same as the "legs" of squid and cuttlefish. Besides eight shorter arms, squid and cuttlefish also have two longer tentacles, ten in total, whereas an octopus has only eight arms and no specialized tentacles. This is also an intuitive way to tell the three apart.

In everyday life, an octopus's eight arms serve a wide range of purposes: they are used to hold prey when hunting, to push against the seafloor when crawling, and to build dens and cover the entrance to their hiding place when resting. In addition, octopus arms are firm in texture and unique in flavor, and after drying or stewing they take on a distinctive taste, making them a common ingredient on the table in many coastal regions.