epiphyte
/ˈɛpɪfɑɪt/
epiphyte noun: a plant that grows on another, using it for physical support but obtaining no nutrients from it and neither causing damage nor offering benefit.
Noun
epiphyte (plural epiphytes)
- A plant that grows on another, using it for physical support but obtaining no nutrients from it and neither causing damage nor offering benefit.
- It has been suggested to me that these fine plants will not prove cultivable, because they are epiphytes.[…]The probability however is, that they do not require to be treated as epiphytes, and that, like orchids, they will grow better if committed judiciously to the earth.1848, John Lindley, A notice of some species of Rhododendron inhabiting Borneo: Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, volume 3, page 88
- The nature of the surface of a plant also determines the number and sort of Epiphytes which lodge on it.1893, Natural Science: A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress, volume 3, page 185
- Synonyms:
- air plant
- A fungus that grows on a plant but does not feed upon it saprotrophically (an epiphytic fungus). (The science of detecting and studying any such symbiosis as may be involved in this relationship is still developing.)
epiphyte meaning in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Tagalog
epiphyte in Tamil
- தொற்றி வாழும், பற்றி வாழும் தாவரம், மேலொட்டித்தாவரம், ஒட்டிவளரி, செடுமேற்செடு, தொத்துச்செடு
epiphyte in Telugu
- epiphyte
- వృక్షరుహము vr̥kṣaruhamu
epiphyte in Kannada
- ಪರೋಪಜೀವಿ
epiphyte in Tagalog
- plant that grows on another
- halamang kapitin, halamang anginin
Synonyms of epiphyte
Forms of epiphyte
| plural | epiphytes |
|---|
Origin of epiphyte
From Ancient Greek ἐπιφύτον (epiphúton, “one [plant] that grows upon another plant”), from ἐπί (epí, “on top of”) + φυτόν (phutón, “plant”), via epi- (“above, over”) + -phyte (“plant”).
Words formed from epiphyte
Questions about epiphyte
- What does epiphyte mean?
- Epiphyte means a plant that grows on another, using it for physical support but obtaining no nutrients from it and neither causing damage nor offering benefit.
- What is epiphyte in Tamil?
- Epiphyte in Tamil is தொற்றி வாழும், பற்றி வாழும் தாவரம், மேலொட்டித்தாவரம். See Epiphyte meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is epiphyte?
- Epiphyte is a noun.
- How do you pronounce epiphyte?
- Epiphyte is pronounced /ˈɛpɪfɑɪt/.
- What is the plural of epiphyte?
- The plural of epiphyte is epiphytes.
Words near epiphyte in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: epiphyte (page history and authors); epiphyte (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); వృక్షరుహము (Telugu) (page history and authors); epiphyte (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-epiphyte.wav.
Cite this entry: “epiphyte.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/epiphyte. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.