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Biology vocabulary · Cells and Levels of Organization

Organism

Meaning in biology, with examples

/ˈɔːrɡənɪzəm/nounCore term

In biology, organism means: Any individual living thing, such as a bacterium, a mushroom, a tree or a human, that can grow, reproduce and respond to its environment.

In Turkish: organizma, canlı

How it is used

A neutral scientific word for 'living thing'. It appears in phrases like living organism, multicellular organism, model organism and genetically modified organism (GMO). Use it when you do not want to say plant, animal or microbe specifically.

Example sentences

  1. Yeast is a single-celled organism that is easy to grow in the lab.

  2. All the organisms in this pond ultimately depend on algae, which form the base of the food chain.

Common collocations

  • living organism
  • single-celled organism
  • multicellular organism
  • host organism
  • cellThe smallest unit of life that can survive on its own. Every living thing is made of one or more cells, and each cell is surrounded by a membrane.
  • speciesA group of similar organisms that can breed with each other and produce fertile offspring. It is the basic unit used to classify living things.
  • microorganismA living thing too small to see without a microscope, such as a bacterium, a yeast or a single-celled alga. Viruses are often studied alongside them.
  • model organismA species that is studied in great detail because it is easy to keep and breed in the lab, so that findings can help explain biology in other organisms.

More terms: Cells and Levels of Organization

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