Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Biology A close, prolonged association between two or more different organisms of different species that may, but does not necessarily, benefit each member.
- noun A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Union for life of certain organisms, each of which is necessary to the other; an intimate vital consociation, or kind of consortism, differing in the degree and nature of the connection from inquilinity and parasitism, as in the case of the fungus and alga which together make up the so-called lichen, or of the fungus Mycorrhiza and various Cupuliferæ. See Lichenes, Mycorrhiza. Also called
commensalism .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Biol.) The living together in more or less imitative association or even close union of two dissimilar organisms. In a broad sense the term includes parasitism, or antagonistic symbiosis or antipathetic symbiosis, in which the association is disadvantageous or destructive to one of the organisms, but ordinarily it is used of cases where the association is advantageous, or often necessary, to one or both, and not harmful to either. When there is bodily union (in extreme cases so close that the two form practically a single body, as in the union of algæ and fungi to form lichens, and in the inclusion of algæ in radiolarians) it is called conjunctive symbiosis; if there is no actual union of the organisms (as in the association of ants with myrmecophytes), disjunctive symbiosis.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
relationship ofmutual benefit . - noun biology A close, prolonged association between two or more organisms of different species, regardless of benefit to the members.
- noun The state of people living together in community.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the relation between two different species of organisms that are interdependent; each gains benefits from the other
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I often wonder what kind of science career she might have had, had she been born later -- did you know she was the first to identify lichen as two organisms living in symbiosis?
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They may be said to live in symbiosis with their environment.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1977 - Presentation Speech 1977
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Rather, they recognize the inherent conflicts that arise among the demands of the various stakeholders as well as the need to endeavor to attain "symbiosis" - that is, interdependence and mutual benefit-among the various stakeholder groups.
Recently Uploaded Slideshows StratMgtAdvisor 2010
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The domestic symbiosis is tripartite – Neo-Cons, Born Again Zionists, Corporate Fascists.
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But back in the here and now, not only am I finding it very hard to come up with a feminism that sits comfortably with being transsexual, but I’m also starting to wonder if such a symbiosis is even possible.
Notes for the Feminist Activist Forum’s transgender and intersex learning exchange 2008
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But back in the here and now, not only am I finding it very hard to come up with a feminism that sits comfortably with being transsexual, but I’m also starting to wonder if such a symbiosis is even possible.
Don’t panic 2008
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And before I read this book I knew nothing about wild mushrooms, how they live in symbiosis with trees and can’t be cultivated.
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The relationship is intuitive, connecting the two in symbiosis.
Spread ArtCulture: Patricia Piccinini's World of Creatures Great & Small Spread ArtCulture 2010
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The relationship is intuitive, connecting the two in symbiosis.
Spread ArtCulture: Patricia Piccinini's World of Creatures Great & Small Spread ArtCulture 2010
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There's the winter scenes, and the magical and useful animal companions with whom the protag lives in symbiosis.
reading Update 2007
johnmperry commented on the word symbiosis
Why is the head definition for this word the opposite of the head definition for its adjective, symbiotic?
June 22, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word symbiosis
Well spotted. Symbiotic has a more correct definition, while this one is more naïve and old-fashioned.
June 22, 2008
johnmperry commented on the word symbiosis
No, I think it's the opposite. Symbiosis is the case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
June 22, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word symbiosis
No, seriously, jmp! The word symbiosis, for many reasons, is now used again in its literal meaning of "living together".
I would not insist, but this is a field I know quite well - and I love. :-)
June 22, 2008
super-logos commented on the word symbiosis
Isn't it a feeding off of one another?
August 9, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word symbiosis
Not necessarily, no. In fact if you have two organisms each consuming the other, it wouldn't be symbiotic because one or both would die as a result. But you might be thinking, for example, of those little fish that eat the parasites off sharks. The little fish get fed, and the shark gets rid of its parasites.
August 9, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word symbiosis
Parasitic relationships are a kind of symbiosis, too - a kind with no reciprocity.
August 9, 2008
yarb commented on the word symbiosis
Isn't reciprocity the essence of symbiosis? Parasitic and symbiotic relationships are mutually exclusive.
August 9, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word symbiosis
As Wikipedia well explains, symbiosis is now generally used in a wider sense... Symbiosis sensu stricto can be more narrowly called mutualism.
August 9, 2008
yarb commented on the word symbiosis
Bah, wikipedia. The work of ideologues and heathens!
Actually that is interesting. Thank you, signor.
August 9, 2008