Zool. [L. chāma, chēma, a. Gr. χήμη cockle, f. χα- stem of χαίνειν to gape.] A genus of bivalve mollusks found in warm and tropical seas. The shell of C. gigas is the largest known. Comb. chama-shaped.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., The chama is … confounded with the oister.
1832. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. 287. Conchologists suppose, that the chama may require thirty years or more to attain its full size.
1854. Woodward, Mollusca (1856), 325. Shell inequivalve, chama-shaped.
