oligotroph
oligotroph noun: an organism capable of living in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients.
Noun
oligotroph (plural oligotrophs)
- An organism capable of living in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients.
- While some were common types that thrive on human skin, such as Staphylococcus species, others were oligotrophs, rarer microorganisms that have adapted to grow under extreme conditions by absorbing trace nutrients from the air or from unlikely surfaces like paint.2007 October 9, Warren E. Leary, “In NASA’s Sterile Areas, Plenty of Robust Bacteria”, in New York Times
Forms of oligotroph
| plural | oligotrophs |
|---|
Origin of oligotroph
From oligo- + -troph.
Questions about oligotroph
- What does oligotroph mean?
- Oligotroph means an organism capable of living in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients.
- What part of speech is oligotroph?
- Oligotroph is a noun.
- What is the plural of oligotroph?
- The plural of oligotroph is oligotrophs.
Words near oligotroph in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: oligotroph (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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Cite this entry: “oligotroph.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/oligotroph. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.