extremophile

British

/ ɪkˈstrɛməˌfaɪl /

noun

a microbe that lives in an environment once thought to be uninhabitable, for example in boiling or frozen water

"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

extremophile Scientific

/ ĭk-strē′mə-fīl′ /

An organism adapted to living in conditions of extreme temperature, pressure, or chemical concentration, as in highly acidic or salty environments. Many extremophiles are unicellular organisms known as archaea.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Extremophile research was pioneered by the late Thomas Brock, a microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

From Scientific American • Jul. 21, 2021

Extremophile microbes could very well survive the vacuum of space.

From Slate • Nov. 28, 2017

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023