Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Parasite |
ParasiteNoun1. An animal or plant that lives in or on a host (another animal or plant); the parasite obtains nourishment from the host without benefiting or killing the host. 2. A follower who hangs around a host (without benefit to the host) in hope of gain or advantage. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "parasite" was first used: 1539. (references) |
Etymology: Parasite \Par"a*site\, noun. [French expression, from the Latin expression parasitus, Greek, literally, eating beside, or at the table of, another; beside to feed, from wheat, grain, food.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Health | An animal or a plant that lives on or in an organism of another species and gets at least some of its nutrition from that other organism. (references) |
Literature | Parasite (Greek, para sitos, eating at another's cost). A plant or animal that lives on another; hence a hanger-on, who fawns and flatters for the sake of his food. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Medicine | An organism(plant or animal)that lives in or on another living organism of a different kind and derives subsistence from it without returning any benefit. Source: European Union. (references) |
Science | An organism living on or in, and obtaining its food from, its host, another living organism. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A parasite is an organism that lives in or on the living tissue of a host organism at the expense of it. The biological interaction between the host and the parasite is called parasitism.
Parasites are generally smaller than their hosts, absorbing nutrients from the host's body fluids, but this is far from a universal strategy.
Examples
Many lifeforms are parasitic only during a part of their lifecycle. Many cuckoos, for example, are brood parasites: their young are parasitic on the host species, but adult cuckoos fend for themselves.
- Endoparasites (endo = within; parasites that live inside their hosts)
- Plants
- Rafflesia
- Animals
- Acanthocephala
- Enterobius vermicularis
- Strepsiptera
- Strongyloides stercoralis
- Fungi
- Gymnosporangium and other rusts
- Ectoparasites (ecto = outside; parasites that live on but not within their hosts, for example, attached to their skin)
- Plants
- Cuscuta
- Mistletoe
- Toothwort
- Animals
- Phthiraptera
See also: saprophyte, intestinal parasite
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Parasite."
Synonyms: ParasiteSynonyms: leech (n), sponge (n), sponger (n). (additional references) |
| Antonym: host (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Flatterer | Toady, toadeater; sycophant, courtier, Sir Pertinax MacSycophant; flaneur, proneur; puffer, touter, claqueur; clawback, earwig, doer of dirty work; parasite, hanger-on; (servility). |
Servant | Serf, vassal, slave, negro, helot; bondsman, bondswoman; bondslave; ame damnee, odalisque, ryot, adscriptus gleboe; villian, villein; beadsman, bedesman; sizar; pensioner, pensionary; client; dependant, dependent; hanger on, satellite; parasite; (servility); led captain; protege, ward, hireling, mercenary, puppet, tool, creature. |
Servility | Sycophant, parasite; toad, toady, toad-eater; tufthunter; snob, flunky, flunkey, yes-man, lapdog, spaniel, lickspittle, smell-feast, Graeculus esuriens, hanger on, cavaliere servente, led captain, carpet knight; timeserver, fortune hunter, Vicar of Bray, Sir-Pertinax, Max Sycophant, pickthank; flatterer; doer of dirty work; ame damnee, tool; reptile; slave; (servant); courtier; beat, dead beat, doughface , heeler, homme de cour, sponger, sucker, tagtail, truckler. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | She had no diseases at all. I had seen her at Free and Clear my blood parasite group Thursdays (Fight Club; writing credit: Jim Uhls) Another parasite living on my tax money (This Life; writing credit: Joe Ahearne; Amelia Bullmore) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Parasite (1925) Parasite (2003) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | This schistosome parasite enters the body through the skin of persons coming in contact with infested waters. The adult worm lives in the veins of its host. The parasite is magnified x256 in this photograph. Credit: Bruce Wetzel (photographer). Harry Schaefer (phot. |  | Fimbriated erythocyte. Parasite. Credit: CDC. |
 | Plasmodium falciparum microgametocyte, erythocyte with "bib." Parasite. Credit: CDC. |  | This mature P. malariae schizont is contained within a normal sized RBC. The parasite contains 6-12 merozoites with large nuclei, and has a coarse, dark brown pigment. Credit: CDC. |
 | This growing trophozoite is contained within a normal sized RBC. The parasite is developing larger chromatin, and is forming a more compact cytoplasm. Credit: CDC. |  | O. volvulus, the filarial parasite responsible for causing Onchocerciasis , River Blindness, is transmitted to its human host through the bite of Simulium spp. flies such as the Black Fly. Credit: CDC. |
 | T. vulpis, or "Canine Whipworm", is a parasite that attaches itself to the canine large intestinal mucosa by embedding its head, thereby, causing intestinal inflammation. Credit: CDC. |  | A species of flying fish with a large parasite on its back. Credit: Fisheries. |
 | Curator of the U.S. National Parasite Collection, Ralph Lichtenfels retrieves a specimen, one of several hundred that are lent to researchers worldwide each year. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer.. |  | Zoologist Patricia Pilitt examines parasite specimens that are on display and available for loan from the U.S. National Parasite Collection in Beltsville, Maryland. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer.. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Arthur Schopenhauer | The brain may be regarded as a kind of parasite of the organism, a pensioner, as it were, who dwells with the body. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Life cycle of the malaria parasite. (references) | |
Balantidium coli, a large ciliated protozoan parasite. (references) | ||
This parasite can infect virtually every meat-eating mammal. (references) | ||
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | PRISON, n. A place of punishments and rewards. The poet assures us that -- "Stone walls do not a prison make," but a combination of the stone wall, the political parasite and the moral instructor is no garden of sweets. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Parasite" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.08% of the time. "Parasite" is used about 313 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.08% | 307 | 16,496 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 1.6% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.32% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 313 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "parasite": Egg parasite ♦ intestinal parasite ♦ live as parasite ♦ malaria parasite ♦ obligate intracellular parasite ♦ obligate parasite ♦ parasite drag ♦ parasite of malaria ♦ parasite yew. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "parasite": parasite-blooms, parasite-hose, parasite-host, parasite-inflicted, parasite-specific. | |
Ending with "parasite": anti-parasite, endo-parasite, host-parasite. | |
Containing "parasite": Host-Parasite Relations. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
parasite space | 8,759 | parasite eve cheat | 33 |
parasite | 1,212 | eve hentai parasite | 31 |
parasite eve | 544 | parasite eve movie | 30 |
parasite eve 2 | 247 | parasite symptom | 30 |
human parasite | 233 | parasite eve pic | 29 |
parasite cleanse | 195 | parasite picture | 28 |
intestinal parasite | 182 | cat parasite | 27 |
parasite tick | 162 | canine parasite | 27 |
parasite cleansing | 123 | stomach parasite | 26 |
worm parasite | 114 | parasite zapper | 25 |
parasite eve 2 walk through | 93 | parasite eve picture | 24 |
computer parasite | 80 | eve2 parasite | 23 |
parasite eve walk through | 54 | feline parasite | 20 |
dog parasite | 51 | malaria parasite | 20 |
skin parasite | 49 | human intestinal parasite | 20 |
parasite eve ii | 45 | parasite eve wallpaper | 19 |
parasite eve 3 | 44 | remove parasite | 17 |
cheat parasite eve 2 | 40 | parasite in dog | 15 |
parasite in human | 35 | internal parasite | 15 |
fish parasite | 34 | parasite eve music | 15 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "parasite"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | woekerplant (cadger, sponger), tafelskuimer (cadger, sponger), rugryer (cadger, sponger), parasiet (cadger, sponger), klaploper (cadger, sponger). (various references) | |
Albanian | parazit (Cadger, freeloader, hanger-on, parasitic, parasitical, sponger). (various references) | |
Arabic | متطفل (meddlesome, obtrusive, snoop, sponger), تتطفل, عاش عالة على, العالة على غيره, الطفيلي (cadger, deadhead, gatecrasher, sponger), شوش (bedevil, befuddle, blanket, confuse, demoralize, derange, disarrange, dislocate, disorganize, disrupt, disturb, dizzy, embroil, fog, fuddle, garble, gum up, hamper, jam, jumble, mire, mix up, muddle, muddy, obfuscate, obscure, outface, perplex, perturb, rattle, ravel, scramble, smudge, unhinge, unsettle). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | паразит (commensal, hanger-on). (various references) | |
Chinese | H"物 , 寄""物. (various references) | |
Czech | příživník (appendage, sponger), parazit (drone, hanger-on, sponger), cizopasník. (various references) | |
Danish | parasit, snylter, redeparasit. (various references) | |
Dutch | parasiet (cadger, sponger), klaploper (cadger, sponger). (various references) | |
Esperanto | parazito. (various references) | |
Farsi | پارازیت (Mush, Noise), طفیلی (Kite, Sponge, Sponger, Tagalong), صدای مزاحم , انگل (Guest, Leech, Satellite, Sponge, Sycophant, Tagalong). (various references) | |
Finnish | loinen. (various references) | |
French | parasite (parasitical). (various references) | |
Frisian | parasyt (cadger, sponger). (various references) | |
German | Schmarotzer (cadger, freeloader, freeloaders, hanger-on, parasitical worm, scrounger, sponger), Parasit (cadger, sponger). (various references) | |
Greek | παράσιτο (harmful organism, pest). (various references) | |
Hebrew | פרזיט, אוכל לחם חס", טפיל (drone, leech, sponge, sponger). (various references) | |
Hungarian | parazita (guest, infestant, parasitic, parasitical). (various references) | |
Indonesian | benalu (sponger, tuft-hunter). (various references) | |
Italian | parassita (hanger-on, parasitic, parasitical, scrounger). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 厄介者 (burden, dependent, hanger-on), 油虫 (cockroach, hanger-on), 活物寄" , 寄"虫 , 寄"虫 , 寄""物 , 寄" (parasitism). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | きせいせいぶつ, きせいちゅう, きせい (ardour, completed, correction, death, entreaty, established, existing, fervour, great master of go, homecoming, oath, parasitism, pledge, prayer, rare, ready-made, realization of an objective, regulation, returning home, spirit, strange voice, uncommon, vigour, vow), かつぶつきせい, あぶらむし (cockroach, hanger-on), やっかいもの (burden, dependent, encumbrance, hanger-on, nuisance). (various references) | |
Korean | 기생충. (various references) | |
Manx | sheadane. (various references) | |
Papiamen | parasit (cadger, sponger). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | arasitepay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | parasita (bleeder, cadger, commensal, dead-beat, guest, hanger-on, leech, lickspittle, sponge, sponger). (various references) | |
Romanian | parazit (dead beat, guest, hanger-on, leech, locust, parasitic, parasitical, pest, sponge, sponger, sycophant, toady). (various references) | |
Russian | тунеядец (sponger), помеха паразитный, паразит (blood-sucker, pest, sponge, sponger, spongers, sucker). (various references) | |
Scottish | sgimilear (a vagrant parasite, intruder, vagrant). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | parazit (tapeworm), trabant (follower), gotovan (idler, sucker). (various references) | |
Spanish | parásito (hanger-on, parasitic, parasitical, pest). (various references) | |
Swedish | parasit (cadger, sponger, sucker), snyltgäst (cadger, sponger). (various references) | |
Turkish | asalak (bloodsucker, cadger, endoparasite, free rider, freeloader, hanger-on, parasital, parasitic, parasitical, sponge, sponger, sucker, tufthunter). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | повзуча рослина (crawler, creeper, groundling, vine), паразитувати (mooch), паразит (caterpillar, dead beat, tapeworm), дармоїд (beat, cadger, freeloader, hanger-on, vagabond). (various references) | |
Welsh | bolerwr (sponge). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sumerian | 3100 BCE-2500 BCE | 1. uh. (various references) |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | parasitos. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "parasite": parasites. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "parasite": ectoparasite, endoparasite, hyperparasite, semiparasite. (additional references) | |
Words containing "parasite": ectoparasites, endoparasites, hyperparasites, semiparasites. (additional references) | |
| |
"Parasite" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Haraszti, Pajarito, Panacide, paracite, parait, parapsid, parapsids, Parasene, paraside, parasight, parasits, parisite, parnassi, parpsite, parsite, Patrassi, perasite, perovskite, Prasith, prosite. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "parasite" (pronounced pe"rusī't) |
| 5 | -r u s ī' t | anthracite. |
| 4 | -u s ī' t | andesite, leukocyte, lymphocyte, magnesite, phagocyte, plebiscite. |
| 3 | -s ī' t | calcite, eyesight, foresight, granulocyte, hindsight, insight, oversight, website. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: aspirate, septaria. | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-e-i-p-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: apteria, aristae, asteria, atresia, parties, pastier, piaster, piastre, pirates, spiraea, traipse. | |
-2 letters: airest, arista, aspire, esprit, paries, paster, pastie, paters, petsai, pietas, pirate, praise, prates, priest, rapist, reatas, repast, riatas, ripest, sarape, satire, satrap, spirea, sprite, striae, stripe, tapers, tapirs, tarsia, terais, tiaras, trapes, tripes. | |
-3 letters: airts, apart, apers, apres, apter, areas, arias. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-e-i-p-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: aspiratae, aspirated, aspirates, disparate, parakites, parasites, parietals, psalteria, satrapies, spermatia. | |
+2 letters: ametropias, apartheids, appertains, asperating, parasitise, parasitize, rapacities, separating, separation, separatism, separatist, separative, spermatial. | |
+3 letters: allopatries, altarpieces, antiphrases, appreciates, arpeggiates, ceratopsian, disparately, expatriates, greasepaint, ipsilateral, paediatrics, pageantries, pancreatins, parasitised, parasitises, parasitized, parasitizes, parasitoses, paresthesia, parliaments, paternalism, paternalist, patriciates, peasantries, planarities, praetorians, reparations, repatriates, separations, separatisms, separatists, transalpine, unaspirated. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
