10 letters · 15 points in Scrabble
noun animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton with a segmented spinal column and a large brain enclosed in a skull or cranium
adjective having a backbone or spinal column
originFrom the substantivization of the above adjective through the associated taxon's name (Vertebrata) (see -ate (noun-forming suffix) for more).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0