Noun: parasite
| Singular | parasite |
| Plural | parasites |
Sample Sentences
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Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites are widely spread parasites.
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...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. [1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 154:]
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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. [2013 March 26, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2017, page 83:]
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Yiannas said there has been widespread public confusion about cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness caused by the microscopic parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis, also known as cyclospora, that can cause explosive diarrhea. [2026 July 25, Oliver Milman, “Former FDA official says US handling of cyclospora near ‘catastrophic level’”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2026:]
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He lacks, however, even the basic Dr. Kildare lingo about medical issues. For instance, he regularly misidentifies poppers as amyl nitrate, instead of amyl nitrite — two forms of heart medicine with different affects ^([sic]). Salmonella, a bacteria, is not usually classified as a parasite. And he mistakenly writes, "lenti means slow" in the lentiviruses. ("Lenti" means lens-shaped, biologists classify by structure, not by behavior.) [1987 December 27, Charley Shively, “AIDS In The Mind Of The Left And The Mainstream”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 24, page 9:]
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Select a disease class
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Virus: Fastest evolution, Most affected by environment, Bonus to infectivity
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Bacteria: Medium evolution, Normally affected by environment, Bonus to drug resistance
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Parasite: Slowest evolution, Least affected by environment, Low visibility [2008 July 14, Dark Realm Studios, Pandemic II, Web:]
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Any germs or parasites on the surface of the meat that you could conceivably wash off are gonna die as soon as you cook it, so don't bother washing it. [2020 November 20, Adam Ragusea, 1:13 from the start, in Why People Wash Meat (or Don't):]
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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. [1902, Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome:]
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A royalist who publicly called for a military intervention to protect the parasite monarchy. [2021 December 1, monamu98, “Thai and Korean netizens oppose debut of H1-Key's Sitala over father's alleged support of dictatorship”, in Sportskeeda, Sportskeeda, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2021, retrieved 03 Dec 2021:]
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Her golden tresses shade / The bosom's stainless pride, / Curling like tendrils of the parasite / Around a marble column. [1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto I”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], →OCLC, page 3:]
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[…] 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,[…] [2019 January 24, Michael E. Brown, Flying Blind: The Politics of the U.S. Strategic Bomber Program, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 170:]
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parasite display
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parasite stand
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parasite unit
Nouns inflected like parasite
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
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”).
Verbs referencing "parasite"
Finnish Nouns
parasiitti.