anaerobic

[ an-uh-roh-bik, an-ai- ]

adjective

1. (of an organism or tissue) living in the absence of air or free oxygen.
2. pertaining to or caused by the absence of oxygen.

anaerobic

/ ˌænɛəˈrəʊbɪk /

adjective

1. (of an organism or process) requiring the absence of or not dependent on the presence of oxygen
2. of or relating to anaerobes

anaerobic

/ ăn′ə-rō′bĭk /

1. Occurring in the absence of oxygen or not requiring oxygen to live. Anaerobic bacteria produce energy from food molecules without the presence of oxygen.
2. Compare aerobic

anaerobic

1. A descriptive term for a process, such as fermentation , that can proceed only in the absence of oxygen , or a living thing that can survive only in the absence of oxygen. ( Compare aerobic .)

Derived Forms

• ˌanaerˈobically, adverb

Other Words From

• an·aer·o·bi·cal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of anaerobic¹

First recorded in 1880–85; anaerobe + -ic

Example Sentences

Then we settle into a pace relatively close to critical power, where we’re only nibbling away very slowly at anaerobic capacity.

From Outside Online

You can run above critical speed for a while, but you’re using up your finite reserves of anaerobic capacity—and once they’re done, you’re cooked.

From Outside Online

Some kinds of bacteria are so good at anaerobic respiration that they don’t bother with oxygen at all.

From Science News For Students

Once you start pushing hard, you simply can’t supply enough energy aerobically, so you have to start adding in some anaerobic energy—regardless of how much oxygen your muscles have.

From Outside Online

That’s what we would call the lactate threshold these days, and it corresponds to what Wasserman called the anaerobic threshold.

From Outside Online

In the fall of 2010, it bought an anaerobic digestion project then under construction in London, Ontario.

From The Daily Beast

In anaerobic digesters, organic material is mixed on a huge pot with massive quantities of tiny bacteria.

From The Daily Beast

The farm plans to utilize an anaerobic digester to gather waste such as left-over plant roots to generate power.

From The Daily Beast

What had been coiled taut in anaerobic tension in Rage and Yoga has unstacked and stretched out in the sun here.

From The Daily Beast

The anaerobic conditions likewise favor the multiplication of intestinal bacteria, and also their fermentative activity.

From Project Gutenberg

Pour similar sets of plates in glucose formate gelatine and agar and incubate in Bulloch's anaerobic apparatus.

From Project Gutenberg

The enumeration of the anaerobic organisms (including the facultative anaerobes).

From Project Gutenberg

This prevents an extension of the injury and the establishment of a good field for the growth of anaerobic bacteria.

From Project Gutenberg

The second compartment is inhabited by anaerobic bacteria, or forms of microscopic life that work practically without air.

From Project Gutenberg