gladius

1. (historical) A Roman sword roughly two feet long.Examples: "Finally, the Romans made the gladius—sharp, of highly-tempered steel, and strongly piercing—the first real sword (Figs. 17, 18, 19), of which only five specimens are now known to exist."; "The gladius was effective either for cutting or for thrusting and was used by legionaries and auxiliaries."historical

2. (zoology) A pen, a hard internal bodypart of certain cephalopods, made of chitin-like material.Examples: "From the Cretaceous of North America fossilised gladii in the enigmatic genus Tusoteuthis have been estimated to give a mantle length (body size) of 1.8m, just less than that of the giant squid’s."