parasite

Syllables: par·a·site/ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/US/ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/

parasite noun: an organism that lives on or in another organism of a different species, deriving benefit from living on or in that other organism, while not contributing towards that other organism sufficiently to cover the cost to that other organism.

Noun

parasite (plural parasites)

An organism that lives on or in another organism of a different species, deriving benefit from living on or in that other organism, while not contributing towards that other organism sufficiently to cover the cost to that other organism.
- Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites are widely spread parasites.
- ...and the mistletoe crept round many of the oaks—that pleasant parasite, whose associations belong rather to the hearth and lighted hall than to its native branches.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 154
1. (informal, specifically) An internal parasite that is an animal or protist.
  - He lacks, however, even the basic Dr. Kildare lingo about medical issues. For instance, he regularly misidentifies poppers as amyl nitrate, instead of amyl nitrite — two forms of heart medicine with different affects ^([sic]). Salmonella, a bacteria, is not usually classified as a parasite. And he...1987 December 27, Charley Shively, “AIDS In The Mind Of The Left And The Mainstream”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 24, page 9
  - Select a disease class
    Virus: Fastest evolution, Most affected by environment, Bonus to infectivity
    Bacteria: Medium evolution, Normally affected by environment, Bonus to drug resistance
    Parasite: Slowest evolution, Least affected by environment, Low visibility2008 July 14, Dark Realm Studios, Pandemic II, Web
(derogatory) A person who lives on other people's efforts or expense and gives little or nothing back.
- Of all the corrupting effects of wealth there is none worse than this, that it makes the wealthy (and their parasites) think in some way divine, or at least a lovely character of the mind, what is in truth nothing but their power of luxurious living.1902, Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome
- A royalist who publicly called for a military intervention to protect the parasite monarchy.2021 December 1, monamu98, “Thai and Korean netizens oppose debut of H1-Key's Sitala over father's alleged support of dictatorship”, in Sportskeeda, Sportskeeda, archived from the original on 03 Dec...
Synonyms:

bloodsucker, bludger, bummer, freeloader, free rider, gadfly, leech, mooch, moocher, scrounge
(derogatory) A sycophant or hanger-on.
(literary, poetic) A climbing plant which is supported by a wall, trellis etc.
- Her golden tresses shade / The bosom's stainless pride, / Curling like tendrils of the parasite / Around a marble column.1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto I”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], →OCLC, page 3
(historical) A retainer or companion of an ancient Celtic warrior, who praised him in song or poetry at gatherings; a bard.
A component of a composite aircraft which is carried aloft and air-launched by a larger carrier aircraft or mother ship to support the primary mission of the carrier; a parasite aircraft.
- […] parasiting and aerial refueling as range-extension measures. Second, parasiting would be exorbitantly expensive, because each parasite bomber would need its own carrier. Two bombers could be serviced by a single tanker, however,[…]2019 January 24, Michael E. Brown, Flying Blind: The Politics of the U.S. Strategic Bomber Program, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 170
(attributive) An isolated (FSDU) (freestanding display unit )
- parasite display
- parasite stand

Verb

parasite (third-person singular simple present parasites, present participle parasiting, simple past and past participle parasited)

(rare) To parasitize.
- ... parasiting upon her husband, taking everything and giving nothing in return, this woman had brought her husband to a condition of serious ill health because of his grief, anxiety, and despair over her failure.1921, Margaret J. Hamilton, Mental Hygiene and the Parasite, page 19
- ... parasiting Google, but as is the case with Microsoft's street art advertisements, the relationship is not a stable one. Using a Google map platform to track his work means sharing his location data with the corporation.2021 June 8, Macs Smith, Paris and the Parasite: Noise, Health, and Politics in the Media City, MIT Press, →ISBN

parasite meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

parasite in Hindi

(biology) organism that exists by stealing resources from another organism: परजीवी parjīvī
useless person who always relies on other people's work and gives nothing back: परजीवी parjīvī

parasite in Tamil

(biology) organism that exists by stealing resources from another organism: ஒட்டுண்ணி oṭṭuṇṇi
useless person who always relies on other people's work and gives nothing back: ஒட்டுண்ணி oṭṭuṇṇi

parasite in Marathi

पॅरासाईट

parasite in Urdu

(biology) organism that exists by stealing resources from another organism: طُفَیلی tufailī, اَمَر بیل amar bel, آکاش بیل ākāś bel

More languagesFewer languages

parasite in Bengali: পরজীবী porjibi
parasite in Telugu: పరాన్నజీవి parānnajīvi
parasite in Malayalam: പരാദം
parasite in Kannada: ಪರೋಪಜೀವಿ, ಪರಾವಲಂಬಿ, ಪರಪುಷ್ಟ, ಹೊರಕುಳಿ
parasite in Punjabi: ਪਰਜੀਵੀ, ਪੈਰਾਸਾਈਟ
parasite in Gujarati: પરોપજીવી
parasite in Odia: ପରଜୀବି
parasite in Tagalog: sasandig, parasito
parasite in Arabic: طُفِيل ṭufīl, طُفَيْلِيّ ṭufayliyy
parasite in Malay: parasit, bendalu
parasite in Indonesian: parasit
parasite in Thai: ปรสิต bpà-rá-sìt
parasite in Vietnamese: kí sinh trùng, vật ký sinh
parasite in Myanmar: ကပ်ပါး kappa:

Examples of parasite in a sentence

It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite.2013 March, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 04 Jan...
Salmonella, a bacteria, is not usually classified as a parasite.1987 December 27, Charley Shively, “AIDS In The Mind Of The Left And The Mainstream”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 24, page 9:
Any germs or parasites on the surface of the meat that you could conceivably wash off are gonna die as soon as you cook it, so don't bother washing it.2020 November 20, Adam Ragusea, 1:13 from the start, in Why People Wash Meat (or Don't):

All 40 example sentences with parasite

Synonyms of parasite

7 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

commensal
mutualist
sometimes symbiote

All synonyms and antonyms of parasite

Forms of parasite

Noun
plural	parasites
Verb
third-person singular present	parasites
present participle	parasiting
past participle	parasited
past	parasited

Plural of parasite: parasites

Origin of parasite

From Middle French parasite, from Latin parasitus, from Ancient Greek παράσιτος (parásitos, “person who eats at the table of another”), from noun use of adjective meaning "feeding beside", from παρά (pará, “beside”) + σῖτος (sîtos, “food”).

Phrases with parasite

parasite aircrafts

Words that rhyme with parasite

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about parasite

What does parasite mean?: Parasite means an organism that lives on or in another organism of a different species, deriving benefit from living on or in that other organism, while not contributing towards that other organism sufficiently to cover the cost to that other organism.
What is parasite in Hindi?: Parasite in Hindi is परजीवी (parjīvī). See Parasite meaning in Hindi.
How do you use parasite in a sentence?: It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite.
What part of speech is parasite?: Parasite can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce parasite?: Parasite is pronounced /ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of parasite?: The plural of parasite is parasites.

Words near parasite in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: parasite (page history and authors); parasite (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parasite (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parasite (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); parasite (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parasite (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); parasite (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-parasite.wav.

Cite this entry: “parasite.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/parasite. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.