Word.ws English Dictionary

magnetotaxis

magnetotaxis noun: the supposed ability to sense a magnetic field and coordinate movement in response, later discovered to be natural magnetism: such creatures orient themselves magnetically even after death.

Noun

magnetotaxis (uncountable)

  1. The supposed ability to sense a magnetic field and coordinate movement in response, later discovered to be natural magnetism: such creatures orient themselves magnetically even after death

Origin of magnetotaxis

From magneto- + taxis; coined in 1975 by R. P. Blakemore to describe certain motile aquatic bacteria.

Questions about magnetotaxis

What does magnetotaxis mean?
Magnetotaxis means the supposed ability to sense a magnetic field and coordinate movement in response, later discovered to be natural magnetism: such creatures orient themselves magnetically even after death.
What part of speech is magnetotaxis?
Magnetotaxis is a noun.

Words near magnetotaxis in the dictionary

  1. magnetosubband
  2. magnetosubbands
  3. magnetotactic
  4. magnetotail
  5. magnetotails
  6. magnetotaxis
  7. magnetotelephone
  8. magnetotelephones
  9. magnetotelluric
  10. magnetotellurics
  11. magnetotherapeutic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: magnetotaxis (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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