Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An organism capable of synthesizing its own food from inorganic substances, using light or chemical energy. Green plants, algae, and certain bacteria are autotrophs.
Wiktionary
- n. biology Any organism that can synthesize its food from inorganic substances, using heat or light as a source of energy
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. an organism which is autotrophic, i. e., an organism (such as most plants and certain microorganisms) which are capable of synthesizing its own food from simple organic substances, requiring only minerals as nutrients for growth, and using carbonate or carbon dioxide as a source of carbon and simple inorganic nitrogen as a nitrogen source; the energy required is derived from photosynthesis or chemosynthesis. Opposed to
heterotroph . See also auxotroph.
WordNet 3.0
- n. plant capable of synthesizing its own food from simple organic substances
Etymologies
- auto- + -troph (Wiktionary)
Examples
“M. jannaschii is an autotroph, meaning that it generates all its energy from inorganic substances.”
“Thus, the species is an autotroph, meaning that it can obtain its own food from the conversion of light or chemical energy.”
“Do you know a lot about how to identify if an animal is an "autotroph" or an "heterotroph"?”
“More autotroph biomass is just going to provide more organic material for heterotrophs.”
“A heterotroph is an organism that feeds off of another, or its byproducts (so both herbivores and carnivores), as opposed to an autotroph which produces its own energy from the environment (photosynthesis for example).”
“Euglena can live as an autotroph or mesotroph when it is put in darkness for any amount time, but when re-introduced to light will it get its chlorophylb ack.”
“Euglena can live as an autotroph or mesotroph when it is put in darkness for any amount time, but when re-introduced to light will it get its”
“How does the technique called paper chromatography separate pigments in autotroph cells? why the liver cells of alcoholics are likely to have much more smooth endoplasmic reticulum than non drinkers?”
“Besides, we’re animals, so we have to make an effort to, pardon the expression, think like an autotroph instead of a heterotroph.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘autotroph’.
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Words of Dinosaurology
This quickly got bigger and weirder than originally intended, so now it's housing terms that relate to the study of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. See also Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Ichthy...
zygopophyses, ziphodont, plesiomorphic, cleidoic, endothermy, ectothermy, viviparous, vertebrae, cervical, dorsal, sacral, caudal and 628 more...
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new acquisitions
found in the wild (i.e., not on Wordie!)
samara, indehiscent, paschal, rogation, wen, rete, diriment, epicene, duramen, euhemerism, objurgate, canaille and 429 more...
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wvallen's Words
homeostasis, quadrangle, delicious, phosphorylation, isomerase, widdershins, autotroph, onomatopoeia, meld, swimmingly, fastidious, new york and 14 more...
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Random Words I Like
deliquescent, doppelganger, caricature, simulacrum, anhedonia, sesquipedalian, autotroph, tmesis, comminution, foofaraw, tabellion, truthiness and 52 more...
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