Word.ws English Dictionary

protist

/ˈproʊtɪst/

protist noun: any of the eukaryotic, usually unicellular organisms—including protozoans, slime molds and some algae—historically grouped into the kingdom Protista (or Protoctista), now distributed over several clades; any eukaryote that is not a plant, animal or fungus.

protist: a close up of a cell phone case
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Noun

protist (plural protists)

  1. Any of the eukaryotic, usually unicellular organisms—including protozoans, slime molds and some algae—historically grouped into the kingdom Protista (or Protoctista), now distributed over several clades; any eukaryote that is not a plant, animal or fungus.
    • Besides the hundreds or thousands of metres of fungal mycelium in a teaspoon of healthy soil, there are more bacteria, protists, insects and arthropods than the number of humans who have ever lived on Earth.2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 162
    Synonyms:
    protistan
    1. Any single-celled eukaryote, prokaryote or sponge .
    2. Any single-celled eukaryote or prokaryote .
    3. Any single-celled eukaryote .

protist meaning in Vietnamese

protist in Vietnamese

eukaryotic unicellular organisms
sinh vật đơn bào

Synonyms of protist

Forms of protist

pluralprotists

Origin of protist

From translingual Protista, from Ancient Greek πρώτιστος (prṓtistos).

Words formed from protist

Questions about protist

What does protist mean?
Protist means any of the eukaryotic, usually unicellular organisms—including protozoans, slime molds and some algae—historically grouped into the kingdom Protista (or Protoctista), now distributed over several clades; any eukaryote that is not a plant, animal or fungus.
What is protist in Vietnamese?
Protist in Vietnamese is sinh vật đơn bào. See Protist meaning in Vietnamese.
What part of speech is protist?
Protist is a noun.
How do you pronounce protist?
Protist is pronounced /ˈproʊtɪst/.
What is the plural of protist?
The plural of protist is protists.

Words near protist in the dictionary

  1. protionamide
  2. protip
  3. protips
  4. protirelin
  5. protirement
  6. protist
  7. protista
  8. protistal
  9. protistan
  10. protistans
  11. protistian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: protist (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-protist.wav.

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