Word.ws English Dictionary

-tropism

/-ˈtɹəʊpɪz(ə)m//-ˈtɹoʊˌpɪzəm/

-tropism suffix: movement, turning.

Suffix

-tropism

  1. movement, turning.
  2. growth towards.

Origin of -tropism

From Latin tropus (English trope) + -ism, from Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos, “a turn, way, manner, style, a trope or figure of speech, a mode in music, a mode or mood in logic”), from τροπή (tropḗ, “turn; solstice; trope”). Early use in botany as geotropism and heliotropism.

Words formed from -tropism

Questions about -tropism

What does -tropism mean?
-tropism means movement, turning.
What part of speech is -tropism?
-tropism is a suffix.
How do you pronounce -tropism?
-tropism is pronounced /-ˈtɹəʊpɪz(ə)m/ (UK).

Words near -tropism in the dictionary

  1. -trophism
  2. -trophy
  3. -tropia
  4. -tropic
  5. -tropin
  6. -tropism
  7. -tropy
  8. -tu-
  9. -Tube
  10. -tuber
  11. -tude

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -tropism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Moire9-tropism.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tropism.wav.

Cite this entry: “-tropism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-tropism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.