also: タコあし
This room is full of octopus wiring and is dangerous.
An octopus-leg university has scattered campuses, making it hard to get around.
Standard kanji spelling; 蛸 is a non-jōyō kanji but commonly used in this compound.
Mixed kanji-katakana spelling; common in technical contexts such as タコ足配線.
Mixed kanji-hiragana spelling; less common but still seen.
Compound of 蛸 (tako, 'octopus') and 足 (ashi, 'leg'), literally 'octopus legs'. The metaphorical sense comes from the image of many branching tentacles.