Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Feeding on only one kind of food.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Feeding on a single substance, or a single kind of food: opposed to heterophagous.
  • Specifically, of sporozoans, passing the entire life-cycle in one host; permanently intracellular: contrasted with polyphagous.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective That eats only one kind of food.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Koine Greek μονοφάγος (monophagos, "that eats alone") + English -ous

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Examples

  • One must know that the brinjal fruit and shoot borer (Leucinodes orbonalis) is also a characteristic monophagous insect (single host pest) and will naturally try to struggle to withstand bacterial toxins.

    The Hindu - Front Page 2010

  • Most phytophagous insects are diet specialists, i.e., they feed on one or a few plant species that are closely related (monophagous, host plants within one plant genus, or oligophagous, host plants within one family) [2].

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Hubert Turner et al. 2010

Comments

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  • Feeding on only one type of food. (from Phrontistery)

    May 23, 2008

  • I'm soooo close to being that. Would croissants qualify as a type of food or an amalgamation of foods? Maybe I'm just carbophagous...

    May 23, 2008

  • I'm going to be monophagous on broad beans tonight.

    May 23, 2008