superorganism

American  

[soo-per-awr-guhn-iz-uhm] / ˌsu pərˈɔr gənˌɪz əm /

noun

1. Zoology. a tightly organized group of individual organisms, such as ants, that functions as a single organism through collective behavior.

---

Example Sentences

At the scale of the colony, ants function as a "superorganism," where different members take on roles essential for group survival.

From Science Daily • Dec. 3, 2025

The ants are biological marvels, living in enormous colonies that function as a single superorganism.

From New York Times • Apr. 24, 2023

Cybervisionaries saw in the superorganism an ideal way of describing the networked global brain that they were just beginning to imagine.”

From Washington Post • Dec. 27, 2021

"It's a beautiful little life machine and like a superorganism," Chisholm says.

From Science Magazine • Mar. 9, 2017

The decline of the colony was being observed by its closest neighbor, the Streamside Colony, a younger and now more powerful superorganism.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 18, 2010