Definitions for parasite

• Definition
• Anagrams (483)

parasite par·a·site

Spelling: [par-uh-sahyt]

IPA: /ˈpær əˌsaɪt/

Parasite is a 8 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 10 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 11 points.

You can make 483 anagrams from letters in parasite (aaeiprst).

Definitions for parasite

noun

1. an organism that lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment.
2. a person who receives support, advantage, or the like, from another or others without giving any useful or proper return, as one who lives on the hospitality of others.
3. (in ancient Greece) a person who received free meals in return for amusing or impudent conversation, flattering remarks, etc.

Origin of parasite

1530-40; Latin parasītus Greek parásītos one who eats at another's table, orig. adj.: feeding beside, equivalent to para- para-¹ + sît(os) grain, food + -o

Examples for parasite

It was Italian doctors who proved that the parasite was carried by mosquitoes.

The institution of marriage makes a parasite of woman, an absolute dependent.

Al Qaeda is a parasite that feeds on social instability and turmoil.

All of this feeds a caricature of Washington as a parasite on the real economy.

He ceased for a time at least to be a gentleman to become a hanger-on, a parasite once more.

To be proud that one wasn't a loafer or a drone, or a parasite on the body economic.

It is an unaccountable prejudice that makes the parasite unpopular.

The film reaches its climax when Temple is felled by giardia, a parasite that infects the small intestine.

Parasiticus means a parasite; so called because it grows on a Scleroderma.

And you can't understand that I am precisely what you've described--a parasite!