ameba
Americannoun
plural
amebas, amebae-
any of numerous freshwater, marine, or parasitic one-celled protozoa of the order Amoebida, characterized by a granular nucleus surrounded by a jellylike mass of cytoplasm that forms temporary extensions, or pseudopodia, by which the organism moves, engulfs food particles, and forms food vacuoles.
-
a protozoan of the genus Amoeba, inhabiting bottom vegetation of freshwater ponds and streams: used widely in laboratory studies.
noun
Other Word Forms
- amebalike adjective
- amebic adjective
Etymology
Origin of ameba
From New Latin amoeba, from Greek amoibḗ “change, alternation,”, akin to ameíbein “to exchange”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
People are infected when water containing the ameba enters the body through the nose, usually when people go swimming or diving in lakes and rivers.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 27, 2021
City officials said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the presence of the ameba in water samples from the Don Misenhimer Park splash pad on Friday.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 27, 2021
Partially inflated at the Roswell, N.M., launch site, it looks like an ameba dressed in haute couture.
From Slate • Mar. 26, 2014
On the other hand, the bacillus does less damage than the ameba, and yields to treatment more readily.
From Time Magazine Archive
What cells do.—Each cell acts much as an ameba does.
From Applied Physiology Including the Effects of Alcohol and Narcotics by Overton, Frank
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
