Word.ws English Dictionary

phage

/feɪd͡ʒ/

phage noun: a virus that is parasitic on bacteria.

Noun

phage (plural phages or phage)

  1. A virus that is parasitic on bacteria.
    • "The plural word phages refers to different types of phage, whereas in common usage the word phage can be both singular and plural, referring in the plural sense to particles of the same type of phage." Maloy et al: Microbial Genetics, 2nd ed., 1984, →ISBN, p. 81
    Synonyms:
    bacteriophage

phage meaning in Tamil

phage in Tamil

விழுங்கும் வகை, உண், உண்ணல், விழுங்கல்

Examples of phage in a sentence

  • Mutant phages were then tested for the ability to lysogenize their host bacterium.
  • We examined the efficiency of plaquing and phage virion integrity, as determined by in vitro assembly, immunological detection and electron microscopy.
  • The image shows phage λ bound to its maltoporin receptor LamB on the E.coli membrane during DNA ejection.

All 10 example sentences with phage

Synonyms of phage

Forms of phage

pluralphages
pluralphage

Plural of phage: phages or phage

Origin of phage

Clipping of bacteriophage from bacterio- (“bacteria”) + -phage (“eater”); latter suffix from Ancient Greek -φάγος (-phágos, “eater”), from φαγ- (phag-), aorist stem of ἐσθίω (esthíō) or ἔδω (édō, “to eat, to consume”). Stem φαγ- (phag-) may also derive from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂g- (“to divide, distribute”) thus ultimately doublet of bhakti (via Sanskrit भक्ति (bhakti, “portion, division”) from root भज् (bhaj, “to divide, to apportion”)).

Words formed from phage

Phrases with phage

Words that rhyme with phage

27 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about phage

What does phage mean?
Phage means a virus that is parasitic on bacteria.
What is phage in Tamil?
Phage in Tamil is விழுங்கும் வகை, உண், உண்ணல். See Phage meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is phage?
Phage is a noun.
How do you pronounce phage?
Phage is pronounced /feɪd͡ʒ/.
What is the plural of phage?
The plural of phage is phages.

Words near phage in the dictionary

  1. phaetoneers
  2. Phaetonic
  3. phaetons
  4. Phagan
  5. Phagans
  6. phage
  7. phage therapies
  8. phage therapy
  9. phagedaena
  10. phagedaenic
  11. phagedaenical

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: phage (page history and authors); phage (Tamil 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-phage.ogg.

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