Organism Definition & Meaning

American

British

Scientific

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms organism American [awr-guh-niz-uhm] / ˈɔr gəˌnɪz əm /

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 British / 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

"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 organism Scientific / ôr′gə-nĭz′əm /

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

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

Etymology

Origin of organism

First recorded in 1655–65; organ + -ism

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Many genes involved in shaping body organization in other animals are present in these organisms, but their expression patterns differ substantially.

From Science Daily

Genetic analysis confirmed that the organism represents not only a newly identified species but also an entirely new genus.

From Science Daily

The analysis revealed that preservation practices varied depending on both the type of organism and the time period in which the specimen was stored.

From Science Daily

These tests will examine whether the material supports the movement of bone forming cells inside living organisms and whether it can restore bone strength over time.

From Science Daily

His team wondered whether regularly soaking in hot springs might also influence the parasites and microscopic organisms that live on and inside the monkeys.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• animal
• creature
• structure

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.