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.
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
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
Partially inflated at the Roswell, N.M., launch site, it looks like an ameba dressed in haute couture.
From Slate • Mar. 26, 2014
His difficulty is plain: Dodsworth, no simple ameba, reacts to stimulae of the shifting European scene not automatically but thoughtfully, individually.
From Time Magazine Archive
Throughout the living world, from ameba to man, parasitism and slavery together with their by-products, physical and spiritual degeneracy, appear as the after effects of the more vital individual's efforts to remain alive and free.
From The Glands Regulating Personality by Berman, Louis, M.D.
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.
