organism

[ awr-guh-niz-uhm ]

/ ˈɔr gəˌnɪz əm /

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See synonyms for: organism / organisms on Thesaurus.com

noun

a form of life composed of mutually interdependent parts that maintain various vital processes.

a form of life considered as an entity; an animal, plant, fungus, protistan, or moneran.

any organized body or system conceived of as analogous to a living being: the governmental organism.

any complex thing or system having properties and functions determined not only by the properties and relations of its individual parts, but by the character of the whole that they compose and by the relations of the parts to the whole.

OTHER WORDS FOR organism

4 organization, network, entity, structure.

See synonyms for organism on Thesaurus.com

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of organism

First recorded in 1655–65; organ + -ism

OTHER WORDS FROM organism

or·gan·is·mic, or·gan·is·mal, adjectiveor·gan·is·mi·cal·ly, adverbsu·per·or·gan·ism, noun

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH organism

organism , orgasm

Words nearby organism

organic light-emitting diode, organic molecule, organic molecules, organic psychosis, organic solidarity, organism, organist, organization, organizational culture, organizational psychology, organization chart

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use organism in a sentence

Many speakers railed against uncertainties in releasing genetically engineered organisms.
Genetically modified mosquitoes have been OK’d for a first U.S. test flight|Susan Milius|August 22, 2020|Science News
To understand sex completely, we need an explanation that goes back to the primordial soup of very early complex organisms and the immediate survival pressures they were under.
Sex Is Driven by the Impetus to Change - Issue 88: Love & Sex|Jill Neimark|August 12, 2020|Nautilus
Cogdell wasn’t fully convinced at first that this approach would hold up for other photosynthetic organisms, such as the purple bacteria and green sulfur bacteria that live underwater and are named for the colors their pigments reflect.
Why Are Plants Green? To Reduce the Noise in Photosynthesis.|Rodrigo Pérez Ortega|July 30, 2020|Quanta Magazine
Metabolisms are so low that these organisms can survive by consuming this ancient food matter.
He Found ‘Islands of Fertility’ Beneath Antarctica’s Ice|Steve Nadis|July 20, 2020|Quanta Magazine

“You can literally interpret the body of an organism as a guess about the structure of the environment,” Ramstead said.
What Is an Individual? Biology Seeks Clues in Information Theory.|Jordana Cepelewicz|July 16, 2020|Quanta Magazine
He also wants to “replace every existing organism with a better one.”
Design Your Own Dinosaur: The Era of Custom DNA|Justin Jones|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“It is well established that a fetus is not a ‘person’; rather it is a sui generis organism,” the ruling stated.
Court Says Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Isn’t a Crime|Elizabeth Picciuto|December 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
They need to become streamlined: an organism that is basically very primitive.
Vampires without Glitter or Girl Problems: Inside Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Strain’|Andrew Romano|July 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute produced the first living organism with synthetic bacteria this May.
Synthetic DNA: The New Drug Makers?|Elizabeth Lopatto|May 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
WGA is classified as a lectin—a term for a protein produced by an organism to protect itself from predation.
Wheat Threatens All Humans, New Research Shows|David Perlmutter, MD|December 10, 2013|DAILY BEAST
The organism is an actively motile spiral thread, about four times the diameter of a red corpuscle in length.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
The organism is a short, thick diplobacillus, is frequently intracellular, and is Gram-negative (Fig. 126).
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
The state is, therefore, an artificial organism for the promotion of individual and collective good.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 2|Various
There are other infective diseases, in which we have not yet found the causative micro-organism, but we presume its existence.
Essays In Pastoral Medicine|Austin Malley
We do not know the cause of yellow fever despite the claims of Sanarelli that he has isolated the specific micro-organism.
Essays In Pastoral Medicine|Austin Malley

British Dictionary definitions for organism

organism

/ (ˈɔːɡəˌnɪzəm) /

noun

any living biological entity, such as an animal, plant, fungus, or bacterium

anything resembling a living creature in structure, behaviour, etc

Derived forms of organism

organismal or organismic, adjectiveorganismally, adverb

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 organism

organism

[ ôr′gə-nĭz′əm ]

An individual form of life that is capable of growing, metabolizing nutrients, and usually reproducing. Organisms can be unicellular or multicellular. They are scientifically divided into five different groups (called kingdoms) that include prokaryotes, protists, fungi, plants, and animals, and that are further subdivided based on common ancestry and homology of anatomic and molecular structures.

organism

OTHER WORDS FOR organism

Origin of organism

OTHER WORDS FROM organism

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH organism

Words nearby organism

Words related to organism

How to use organism in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for organism

Derived forms of organism

Scientific definitions for organism