trophic

¹ American  

[trof-ik, troh-fik] / ˈtrɒf ɪk, ˈtroʊ fɪk /

adjective

1. of or relating to nutrition; concerned in nutritive processes.

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-trophic ² American  

1. a combining form with the meanings “having nutritional habits or requirements” of the kind specified by the initial element (autotrophic ), “affecting the activity of, maintaining” that specified (gonadotrophic ) (in this sense often interchangeable with-tropic ); also forming adjectives corresponding to nouns ending in -troph or -trophy (hypertrophic ).

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trophic British  

/ ˈtrɒfɪk /

adjective

1. of or relating to nutrition

   the trophic levels of a food chain

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trophic Scientific  

/ trŏf′ĭk /

1. Relating to the feeding habits of different organisms in a food chain or web.

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Usage

What does -trophic mean? The combining form -trophic is used like a suffix for a variety of meanings, including "having nutritional habits or requirements." In other words, the sense of -trophic specifies how an organism gets its nutrition or how it feeds. The combining form -trophic is also used as an adjective form of nouns ending with -troph or -trophy. In some cases, -trophic means "affecting the activity of, maintaining." In this sense, it is often synonymous with -tropic. The combining form -trophic is often used in scientific terms, especially in biology and anatomy. It comes from the Greek trophikós, meaning “pertaining to food.”Corresponding forms of -trophic combined to the beginning of words are tropho- and troph-. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use -troph, -trophy, tropho-, and troph- articles.

Other Word Forms

• trophically adverb

Etymology

Origin of trophic¹

First recorded in 1870–75, trophic is from the Greek word trophikós pertaining to food. See tropho-, -ic

Origin of -trophic²

trophic

Example Sentences

Species in the study all occupied high and similar trophic levels and consumed a mixture of cephalopods and fishes.

From Science Daily • Feb. 21, 2024

Within weeks the pigs, like the rest of the farm animals within the bounds of the park, would be gone, and the whole trophic system would change.

From New York Times • Jan. 16, 2024

Studies have backed this up, showing a top-down cycle of consequences called a trophic cascade.

From National Geographic • Jan. 4, 2024

When sea otters were reintroduced to an Alaskan island, they triggered a trophic cascade that led to the return of offshore kelp.

From Scientific American • Oct. 19, 2023

Third stage: neuralgic attacks become rare and comparatively unimportant; tendency to trophic changes greatly lessened; local an�sthesia persists.

From Neuralgia and the Diseases that Resemble it by Anstie, Francis E.