Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use parasite in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

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. Example: “Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites are widely spread parasites.”

Examples of parasite by meaning

nounAn organism that lives on or in another organism of a different species, deriving benefit from living on or in that...

  • Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites are widely spread parasites.
  • 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...
  • Yiannas said there has been widespread public confusion about cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness caused by the microscopic parasite Cyclospora cayetanensis, also known as cyclospora, that can cause explosive diarrhea.2026 July 25, Oliver Milman, “Former FDA official says US handling of cyclospora near ‘catastrophic level’”, in The Guardian, archived from...

nounAn internal parasite that is an animal or protist.

  • 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)

nounA component of a composite aircraft which is carried aloft and air-launched by a larger carrier aircraft or mother ship...

  • Second, parasiting would be exorbitantly expensive, because each parasite bomber would need its own carrier.2019 January 24, Michael E. Brown, Flying Blind: The Politics of the U.S. Strategic Bomber Program, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page...

More sentences with parasite

  • They protected themselves from the small parasites with a fine wire mesh.From the entry fine
  • The majority of the Legionella cells in water are believed to live intracellularly as protozoan parasites.From the entry intracellularly
  • Glochidia were once believed to be parasites on the gills of the parents.From the entry glochidium
  • The parasite, leishmania, is transmitted by the bite of an infected sandfly.2026 February 12, Wendy Ruderman, “Traveling to Southern Europe? Here's what to know about a deadly parasite active there”, in The…. From the entry visceral leishmaniasis
  • The parasite — leishmania — is transmitted by a bite from an infected sandfly.2026 February 12, Wendy Ruderman, “Traveling to Southern Europe? Here's what to know about a deadly parasite active there”, in The…. From the entry visceral leishmaniasis
  • Only one commercial parasite vaccine is available against an ecoparasite for sea lice.2024, Baskaralingam Vaseeharan, Palmy Jesudhasan, Vaccines in Aquaculture, page 246. From the entry ecoparasite
  • Parasites that infect macrophages or endothelial cells can develop into megaloschizonts, generating more merozoites.2015 July 29, “The Gametocytes of Leucocytozoon sabrazesi Infect Chicken Thrombocytes, Not Other Blood Cells”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry megaloschizonts
  • Samples of nauplius, copepodid and chalimus stages consisted of pools of parasites.2015 September 30, “A Survey of the ATP-Binding Cassette (ABC) Gene Superfamily in the Salmon Louse ( Lepeophtheirus salmonis )”, in PLOS…. From the entry chalimus
  • Animal dung can carry parasites and other germs that can make livestock sick.2014, Emma Carlson Berne, Dung Beetles: Stronger than Ten Men! (Animal Superpowers), New York, N.Y.: PowerKiDS Press, →ISBN, page 22. From the entry dung beetle
  • On introduction of the parasite into immunologically naive mouse populations, the impact was dramatic (Fig. 4.9).2013, G.W. Esch, J.C. Fernandez, A Functional Biology of Parasitism, →ISBN. From the entry immunologically naive
  • Several hippoboscid flies have been identified as vectors of Haemoproteus species,haemosporidian blood parasites that cause bird malarias.2009, Gary R. Mullen, Lance A. Durden, editors, Medical and Veterinary Entomology, unnumbered page. From the entry hippoboscid
  • Yet somehow the capuchins manage to either outwit or outrun the forest’s legions of parasites.2009 February 3, Natalie Angier, “GPS for Forest Creatures on the Move”, in New York Times. From the entry capuchins
  • A parasite had to mind his pees and cues at a symposium.2007, Vicki Leon, “PARASITE. Like a louse, only bigger”, in Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions…. From the entry mind one's pees and cues
  • The psocopterans most readers are likely to encounter seem more social parasites than social.2006, James T. Costa, The Other Insect Societies, page 193. From the entry psocopteran
  • Meloids are herbivorous as adults, and their larvae are parasites of bees or eat grasshopper eggs.2002, Frank N. Young, Jr.; Gene Kritsky, A Survey of Entomology, page 200. From the entry meloid
  • You have not contributed anything to society in your life, like a little parasite.2000 September 14, Calgary Rob, “5 Years in Calgary Did Some Good, Afterall^([sic])”, in calgary.general (Usenet), archived from the…. From the entry GTAer
  • The association of primitive parasites with primitive hosts is often exemplified by Gyrocotyle and its chimerid host.1973, Biological bulletin - Volume 144, page 500. From the entry chimerid
  • He had boozed away an evening with Podson because he was an attendant parasite on Doctor Ramsey.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 70. From the entry gabbler
  • The Oorya, not unanxious to play off one parasite against the other, slunk away toward the dovecot.1901, Rudyard Kipling, Kim. From the entry unanxious
  • Well, yes, boss, it’s a parasite called toxoplasmosis.2025 September 24, “Conflict of Interest”, in South Park, season 27, episode 5, spoken by JD Vance. From the entry toxoplasmosis
  • White settlers in Kenya were really parasites in paradise.2018, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir. From the entry bloodsuckery
  • This raises the question of how to reliably quantify the relative abundance of host and parasite gDNA in these samples.2016 March 2, “Absolute Quantification of the Host-To-Parasite DNA Ratio in Theileria parva -Infected Lymphocyte Cell Lines”, in PLOS ONE…. From the entry macroschizont
  • The separate biovolumes of herbivores, predators, parasites, and detritivores did not vary consistently with grass treatment (Table 2 ).2015 July 10, “Grassland Arthropods Are Controlled by Direct and Indirect Interactions with Cattle but Are Largely Unaffected by Plant…. From the entry biovolume
  • Since the transmission of parasites through breast feeding (postnatal), amniotic fluid or by transuterine route are unlikely ( Virreira et al.2015, Yves Carlier et al., “Congenital Chagas disease: an update”, in Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, volume 110, →DOI. From the entry transuterine
  • The viability of the encapsulated parasites is long enough to enable the study of intravacuolar amastigogenesis and replication.2015 August 5, “Encapsulation of Living Leishmania Promastigotes in Artificial Lipid Vacuoles”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry amastigogenesis
  • Infections caused by helminthes, such as parasites of the Ancylostomidae family, can provoke anemia due to chronic intestinal blood loss.2015 October 8, “Determinants of Iron Deficiency Anemia in a Cohort of Children Aged 6-71 Months Living in the Northeast of Minas Gerais…. From the entry helminthes
  • Synchronised parasites were harvested using gelafundin floatation at the trophozoite stage which was then cultured to ring stage.2015 August 12, Tawanda Zininga et al., “Plasmodium falciparum Hop (PfHop) Interacts with the Hsp70 Chaperone in a Nucleotide-Dependent…. From the entry gelafundin
  • Of the four of them, Witch's Butter is a parasite.2015, Compiled by Mary K. Hanson for Tuleyome, A Compendium of Tuleyome Tales, Volume 2, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 38. From the entry witch's butter
  • Clive said that it was the parasites in the food and that they were getting to his brain.2014, Subhas, Imagination Drift: A Prince for Three Days, FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 239. From the entry potioner
  • Our fear and loathing for parasites is obviously adaptive.2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 91. From the entry psychopathology
  • She didn't want to lose their childish battle of wills, but neither did she want some parasite swimming up her hoo-ha.2009, Lexi Ryan, Stilettos, Inc., page 163. From the entry hoo-ha
  • As a positive control, all extraerythrocytic parasites, which commonly occur late in P. chabaudi infections, stained positive for TUNEL (fig.2009 February 6, Brendan J. McMorran et al., “Platelets Kill Intraerythrocytic Malarial Parasites and Mediate Survival to Infection”, in…. From the entry extraerythrocytic
  • Like other Australian marsupial taxa, wombats appear particularly susceptible to toxoplasmosis due to exposure to the coccidian parasite Toxoplasma gondii.2008, Larry Vogelnest, Rupert Woods, editors, Medicine of Australian Mammals, unnumbered page. From the entry toxoplasmosis
  • The bi-voltine chalcid parasites of coccids in their first generation parasitise the young forms of coccids, which get killed.2004, B. V. David, T. N. Ananthakrishnan, The CPA Examination: Text, Problems, and Solutions, 2nd edition, page 703. From the entry coccid

Meaning of parasite

  1. 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.
  2. noun An internal parasite that is an animal or protist.
  3. noun A person who lives on other people's efforts or expense and gives little or nothing back.

Full definition of parasite

Questions about parasite in a sentence

How do you use parasite in a sentence?
Parasite is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites are widely spread parasites.”
What is a short sentence with parasite?
“Well, yes, boss, it’s a parasite called toxoplasmosis.”
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.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: parasite (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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