organism

[awr-guh-niz-uhm]

noun

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

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

3. any organized organized body or system conceived of as analogous to a living being.

   the governmental organism.

4. 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.

   Synonyms: structure, entity, network, organization

organism

/ ˈɔːɡəˌnɪzəm /

noun

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

2. anything resembling a living creature in structure, behaviour, etc

organism

1. 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.

Other Word Forms

• organismic adjective
• organismal adjective
• organismically adverb
• superorganism noun
• organismally adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of organism¹

First recorded in 1655–65; organ + -ism

Example Sentences

It was a landmark discovery and E. coli became the "very favourite organism of everybody", he says.

From BBC

It needs to survive, because yeast is an organism just like you and I, and we need the same things.

From Salon

The ocean is crucial for the survival of all organisms on the planet.

From BBC

The tentacles carry extraordinary strength and are built to climb into and dislodge the eyes of other living organisms.

From Salon

The artefacts were secured in containers and immediately cleaned of marine organisms.

From BBC

Related Words

• animal 
• creature 
• structure