heterotrophic
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of heterotrophic
Explanation
In biology, anything heterotrophic eats other animals or plants, rather than making its own food. Unless your cat can synthesize its own nutrients from sunlight, Mr. Flufferpants is heterotrophic. Because you don't fulfill your nutritional requirements through photosynthesis, instead eating plants (and animals, unless you're a vegetarian), you are heterotrophic. Animals, some fungi, and some bacteria are described this way, because they can't create energy from sunlight or chemical reactions. The term heterotrophic comes from hetero-, "other or different," and trophe, "nutrition."
Vocabulary lists containing heterotrophic
Life Science: Ecosystems
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Organisms and Environments 2: Taxonomy and Food Webs
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: hetero
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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.
The researchers involved in the current study used the results of those surveys, which focused on the English Channel and Scottish coast, to investigate six groups of tiny plankton including two groups of heterotrophic bacteria.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 5, 2024
All animals require a source of food and are therefore heterotrophic, ingesting other living or dead organisms; this feature distinguishes them from autotrophic organisms, such as most plants, which synthesize their own nutrients through photosynthesis.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
The other subgroup of chromalveolates, the stramenopiles, includes photosynthetic marine algae and heterotrophic protists.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Like herbivores and predators, decomposers are heterotrophic: they use organic substrates to get their energy, carbon and nutrients for growth and development.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
It is obvious that the metabolic processes of the autotrophic plants are very different from those of the heterotrophic type of plants.
From The Chemistry of Plant Life by Roscoe Wilfred Thatcher
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
