domatium
/dəʊˈmeɪʃəm/
domatium noun: a chamber produced by a plant in which insects, mites, or fungi live.
Noun
domatium (plural domatia)
- A chamber produced by a plant in which insects, mites, or fungi live.
- A domatium typically takes the form of a hollow under a leaf, or a system of tunnels in a thorn or stem. Ideally, it is a mutualistic adaptation and should not be confused with simple damage by a borer or gall-forming pest, although commonly there is no sharp distinction between domatia of value to...
- All are ordinary anatomical features of the plants that the ants exploit, apparently in a unilateral manner. In contrast, the domatia listed comprehensively in Table 14-1 do appear uniquely to serve as ant nests.1990, Bert Hölldobler, Edward O. Wilson, The Ants, Harvard University Press, page 535
Forms of domatium
| plural | domatia |
|---|
Origin of domatium
Borrowed from New Latin dōmatium, from Ancient Greek δωμάτιον (dōmátion, “chamber, bedroom”), diminutive of δῶμα (dôma, “house, dwelling place of animals”); akin to δόμος (dómos, “house”).
Words formed from domatium
Questions about domatium
- What does domatium mean?
- Domatium means a chamber produced by a plant in which insects, mites, or fungi live.
- What part of speech is domatium?
- Domatium is a noun.
- How do you pronounce domatium?
- Domatium is pronounced /dəʊˈmeɪʃəm/.
- What is the plural of domatium?
- The plural of domatium is domatia.
Words near domatium in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: domatium (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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