allotroph

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word allotroph. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word allotroph, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say allotroph in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word allotroph you have here. The definition of the word allotroph will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofallotroph, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

From allo- +‎ -troph.

Noun

allotroph (plural allotrophs)

  1. (rare) Synonym of heterotroph
    • 1968, M. S. Mani, Ecology and Biogeography of High Altitude Insects, →ISBN, page 406:
      The ecosystems of the extra-polar high mountains are described as anabolic-allotroph systems, but those of the Antarctic mountains are katabolic autotoph systems.
    • 1970, Stephen H. Dole, Habitable Planets for Man, page 142:
      A living thing using only inorganic materials as food, as opposed to heterotrophs, allotrophs, parasites, or saprophytes, which depend on other organisms for nutrition.
    • 1974, Roger Pearson, Introduction to Anthropology, page 39:
      [We see the] plants as synthesizing autotrophs, extracting energy from light and storing it in organic form, and the animals as predatory allotrophs, consuming organic material in order to secure energy, []
    • 1978, Israel Journal of Entomology, volumes 12-14, page 138:
      It is possible that at a young age these secondary host plants (allotrophs) have a similar chemistry to that of the primary hosts that is also attractant and palatable for the beetles. It is also possible that the allotrophs are actually phytochemically []

Usage notes

  • Allotrophe is rare; indeed, it occurs as a misspelling of allotrope (even in college-level reference works)[1] almost as often as it occurs as asynonym of heterotroph.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ For example, Barron's how to prepare for the college-level examination program (CLEP), general examinations (1990), page 488: Chemical elements often exist in different forms and these are called allotrophs.