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parasite. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
parasite, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
parasite in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
parasite you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle French parasite, from Latin parasitus, from Ancient Greek παράσιτος (parásitos, “person who eats at the table of another”), from noun use of adjective meaning "feeding beside", from παρά (pará, “beside”) + σῖτος (sîtos, “food”).
Pronunciation
Noun
parasite (plural parasites)
- (derogatory) A person who lives on other people's efforts or expense and gives little or nothing back.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:scrounger
2021 December 1, monamu98, “Thai and Korean netizens oppose debut of H1-Key's Sitala over father's alleged support of dictatorship”, in sportskeeda.com, sportskeeda, retrieved 2021-12-03:A royalist who publicly called for a military intervention to protect the parasite monarchy.
1902, Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome:Of all the corrupting effects of wealth there is none worse than this, that it makes the wealthy (and their parasites) think in some way divine, or at least a lovely character of the mind, what is in truth nothing but their power of luxurious living.
- (derogatory) A sycophant or hanger-on.
- (biology) An organism that lives on or in another organism of a different species, deriving benefit from living on or in that other organism, while not contributing towards that other organism sufficiently to cover the cost to that other organism.
Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites are widely spread parasites.
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. , volume III, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 154:...and the mistletoe crept round many of the oaks—that pleasant parasite, whose associations belong rather to the hearth and lighted hall than to its native branches.
2013 March, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 4 January 2017, page 83:It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.
- (literary, poetic) A climbing plant which is supported by a wall, trellis etc.
1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto I”, in Queen Mab; , London: P. B. Shelley, , →OCLC, page 3:Her golden tresses shade / The bosom's stainless pride, / Curling like tendrils of the parasite / Around a marble column.
- (historical) A retainer or companion of an ancient Celtic warrior, who praised him in song or poetry at gatherings; a bard.
- (aviation) A component of a composite aircraft which is carried aloft and air-launched by a larger carrier aircraft or mother ship to support the primary mission of the carrier; a parasite aircraft.
2019 January 24, Michael E. Brown, Flying Blind: The Politics of the U.S. Strategic Bomber Program, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 170:[…] parasiting and aerial refueling as range-extension measures. Second, parasiting would be exorbitantly expensive, because each parasite bomber would need its own carrier. Two bombers could be serviced by a single tanker, however, […]
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
useless person who always relies on other people's work and gives nothing back
- Afrikaans: parasiet (af)
- Arabic: طُفَيْلِيّ (ar) m (ṭufayliyy)
- Armenian: պորտաբույծ (hy) (portabuyc), ձրիակեր (hy) (jriaker)
- Asturian: parásitu (ast) m
- Azerbaijani: müftəxor, müftə yeyən
- Belarusian: паразі́т m (parazít), дармае́д m (darmajéd)
- Bulgarian: парази́т (bg) m (parazít)
- Burmese: ကပ်ပါး (my) (kappa:)
- Catalan: paràsit (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 寄生蟲/寄生虫 (zh) (jìshēngchóng), 食客 (zh) (shíkè)
- Czech: parazit (cs) m, příživník (cs) m
- Danish: parasit (da) m
- Dutch: parasiet (nl) m or f, profiteur (nl) m
- Finnish: parasiitti (fi)
- French: parasite (fr) m, profiteur (fr) m
- Galician: parásito m
- German: Parasit (de) m
- Greek: παράσιτο (el) n (parásito)
- Ancient: παράσιτος m (parásitos)
- Hebrew: פָּרָזִיט (he) m (parazít)
- Hungarian: élősködő (hu), parazita (hu)
- Icelandic: sníkjudýr n, afæta (is) f
- Irish: péist (ga) f, diúgaire m, súmaire m, sceartán m, siolpaire m, trumpa m
- Italian: parassita (it) m
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: مشەخۆر (ckb) (mşexor)
- Latin: parasītus m, parasīta f
- Macedonian: паразит m (parazit)
- Malay: bendalu
- Maori: parakūkā, kaitahaumu
- Norwegian: parasitt m
- Ottoman Turkish: طفیلی (tufeyli), اویونتی (uyuntu), اویونتو (uyuntu)
- Polish: pasożyt (pl) m, darmozjad (pl) m
- Portuguese: parasita (pt) m or f
- Romanian: parazit (ro) m, parazită (ro) f
- Russian: парази́т (ru) m (parazít), нахле́бник (ru) m (naxlébnik), тунея́дец (ru) m (tunejádec), дармое́д (ru) m (darmojéd), прижива́л (ru) m (priživál)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: гото̀ва̄н m, гото̀ва̄нка f, на́метнӣк m, пара̀зӣт m
- Roman: gotòvān (sh) m, gotòvānka (sh) f, námetnīk (sh) m, paràzīt (sh) m
- Slovak: parazit m, príživník m
- Slovene: parazit m
- Spanish: parásito (es) m
- Swedish: parasit (sv) c
- Ukrainian: парази́т (uk) m (parazýt), дармої́д m (darmojíd)
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(biology) organism that exists by stealing resources from another organism
- Afrikaans: parasiet (af)
- Albanian: parazit (sq) m
- Arabic: طُفِيل m (ṭufīl)
- Armenian: մակաբույծ (hy) (makabuyc)
- Asturian: parásitu (ast) m
- Azerbaijani: parazit, tüfeyli, tüfeyl
- Belarusian: паразі́т m (parazít)
- Bengali: পরজীবী (bn) (porjibi)
- Bulgarian: парази́т (bg) m (parazít)
- Burmese: ကပ်ပါး (my) (kappa:)
- Catalan: paràsit (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 寄生物 (zh) (jìshēngwù), 寄生蟲/寄生虫 (zh) (jìshēngchóng)
- Czech: cizopasník (cs) m, parazit (cs) m
- Danish: parasit (da) c
- Dutch: parasiet (nl) m or f
- Esperanto: parazito
- Estonian: parasiit
- Finnish: loinen (fi)
- French: parasite (fr) m
- Friulian: parasit m
- Galician: parásito m
- Georgian: პარაზიტი (ṗaraziṭi)
- German: Schmarotzer (de) m, Parasit (de) m
- Greek: παράσιτο (el) n (parásito)
- Hebrew: טַפִּיל (he) m (tapil), פָּרָזִיט (he) m (parazít)
- Hindi: परजीवी (parjīvī)
- Hungarian: élősködő (hu), parazita (hu)
- Icelandic: sníkill (is) m, sníkjudýr n
- Ido: parazito (io)
- Interlingua: please add this translation if you can
- Irish: seadán m
- Italian: parassita (it) m
- Japanese: 寄生虫 (ja) (きせいちゅう, kiseichū), 寄生物 (きせいぶつ, kiseibutsu)
- Kazakh: паразит (parazit)
- Khmer: បរាសិត (km) (paʼraasət), បញ្ញើក្អែក (km) (baññaə kʼaek) (parasitic plant)
- Korean: 기생충(寄生蟲) (ko) (gisaengchung), 기생물(寄生物) (ko) (gisaengmul)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: چڵکاوخۆر (çillkawxor)
- Kyrgyz: паразит (parazit)
- Latin: parasitus m
- Latvian: parazīts m
- Lithuanian: parazitas (lt) m
- Macedonian: паразит m (parazit)
- Malay: parasit
- Maori: pirinoa
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: parasitt m
- Nynorsk: parasitt m
- Ottoman Turkish: طفیل (tufeyl), طفیلی (tufeyli)
- Persian: انگل (fa) (angal)
- Piedmontese: parassit m
- Polish: pasożyt (pl) m
- Portuguese: parasita (pt) m or f, verme (pt) m
- Romanian: parazit (ro) m
- Russian: парази́т (ru) m (parazít)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: на́метнӣк m, пара̀зӣт m
- Roman: námetnīk (sh) m, paràzīt (sh) m
- Slovak: parazit m
- Slovene: parazit m
- Spanish: parásito (es) m
- Swahili: kimelea (sw)
- Swedish: parasit (sv) c
- Tagalog: sasandig, parasito
- Tajik: паразит (parazit), ангал (angal)
- Telugu: పరాన్నజీవి (te) (parānnajīvi)
- Thai: ปรสิต (th) (bpà-rá-sìt)
- Turkish: parazit (tr), asalak (tr)
- Turkmen: parazit
- Ukrainian: парази́т (uk) m (parazýt)
- Uzbek: parazit (uz)
- Vietnamese: kí sinh trùng (寄生蟲), vật ký sinh (物寄生)
- Volapük: parasit
- Welsh: arfilyn m, parasit m
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Translations to be checked
See also
Verb
parasite (third-person singular simple present parasites, present participle parasiting, simple past and past participle parasited)
- (rare) To parasitize.
References
Anagrams
French
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Latin parasītus, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek παράσιτος (parásitos).
Noun
parasite m (plural parasites)
- parasite
- (electronics, in the plural) radio interference
Des parasites troublent l’appareil.- The equipment is affected by radio interference.
Adjective
parasite (plural parasites)
- parasitic
Derived terms
Descendants
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb
parasite
- inflection of parasiter:
- first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- second-person singular imperative
Further reading
Galician
Verb
parasite
- inflection of parasitar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative
Latin
Noun
parasīte
- vocative singular of parasītus
Portuguese
Verb
parasite
- inflection of parasitar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative
Spanish
Verb
parasite
- inflection of parasitar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative