Word.ws English Dictionary

opisthokont

UK/ɒˈpɪsθəʊ̆kɒnt/

opisthokont noun: any of very many eukaryotes, including animals and fungi, whose flagellate cells (if any) propel themselves with a single posterior flagellum.

Noun

opisthokont (plural opisthokonts)

  1. Any of very many eukaryotes, including animals and fungi, whose flagellate cells (if any) propel themselves with a single posterior flagellum.
    • Based on a single posterior flagellum (opisthokont), flattened, nondiscoid mitochondrial cristae, a chitinous exoskeleton, storage of glycogen instead of starch, lack of chloroplasts, and the code UGA for tryptophan, not chain termination, in their mitochondria, Cavalier-Smith [54] suggests a...2002, Michael Breitenbach, Reto Crameri, Samuel B. Lehrer, Fungal Allergy and Pathogenicity, Karger Medical and Scientific Publishers, →ISBN, page 211, →ISBN
    • However, these characters are only sporadically found among the various opisthokont allies (described above).2004, Joel Cracraft, Michael J. Donoghue, Assembling the Tree of Life, Oxford University Press (USA), →ISBN, page 68, →ISBN

Forms of opisthokont

pluralopisthokonts

Origin of opisthokont

From opistho- + -kont (“flagellate”) from Ancient Greek κοντός (kontós, “pole”).

Questions about opisthokont

What does opisthokont mean?
Opisthokont means any of very many eukaryotes, including animals and fungi, whose flagellate cells (if any) propel themselves with a single posterior flagellum.
What part of speech is opisthokont?
Opisthokont is a noun.
How do you pronounce opisthokont?
Opisthokont is pronounced /ɒˈpɪsθəʊ̆kɒnt/ (UK).
What is the plural of opisthokont?
The plural of opisthokont is opisthokonts.

Words near opisthokont in the dictionary

  1. opisthograph
  2. opisthographic
  3. opisthographs
  4. opisthography
  5. opisthogyrate
  6. opisthokont
  7. opisthokonts
  8. opisthomastigote
  9. opisthomastigotes
  10. opisthomerite
  11. opisthomerites

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: opisthokont (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: “opisthokont.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/opisthokont. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.