hookworm

[ hook-wurm ]

noun
  1. any of certain bloodsucking nematode worms, as Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus, parasitic in the intestine of humans and other animals.

  2. Also called hookworm disease . a disease caused by hookworms, which may enter the body by ingestion or through the skin of the feet or legs, causing abdominal pain, nausea, and, if untreated, severe anemia.

Origin of hookworm

1
First recorded in 1900–05; hook1 + worm

Other words from hookworm

  • hookwormy, adjective

Words Nearby hookworm

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use hookworm in a sentence

  • The people, largely farmers, become infected with a larval stage of the hookworm, which develops in moist earth.

    A Civic Biology | George William Hunter
  • The hookworm, deadly as an asp, has got you in its loathsome grasp!

  • But I will break the hookworm lose, and cook its everlasting goose!

British Dictionary definitions for hookworm

hookworm

/ (ˈhʊkˌwɜːm) /


noun
  1. any parasitic blood-sucking nematode worm of the family Ancylostomatidae, esp Ancylostoma duodenale or Necator americanus, both of which cause disease. They have hooked mouthparts and enter their hosts by boring through the skin

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for hookworm

hookworm

[ hukwûrm′ ]


  1. Any of numerous small, parasitic nematode worms of the family Ancylostomatidae, having hooked mouthparts with which they fasten themselves to the intestinal walls of various animals, including humans.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.