tropism

Syllables: trop·i·sm/ˈtɹəʊpɪz(ə)m//ˈtɹoʊˌpɪzəm/

tropism noun: the turning of an organism (chiefly a plant) or part of an organism either towards or away from a stimulus; (countable) an instance of this.

Noun

tropism (countable and uncountable, plural tropisms)

(uncountable) The turning of an organism (chiefly a plant) or part of an organism either towards or away from a stimulus; (countable) an instance of this.
- Orientation and tropism are synonymous expressions; that gatherings [of Paramecium] take place is a consequence of the orientation, and therefore throws no light whatever upon the tropisms. (Gatherings, however, are not always indicative of a tropism, i.e., of an orientation, but may be due to...1900 January, Walter E[ugene] Garrey, “The Effects of Ions upon the Aggregation of Flagellated Infusoria: A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculties of the Graduate Schools of Arts, Literature, and...
- Phototropic orientation of an embryo plant in zero gravity […] On earth, a germinated seedling can be placed in any position and the radicle will invariably turn the embryo plant "downward" and the hypocotle "upward". This is because positive root tropism toward gravity and negative stem tropism...1972 November, “Samples of the Student Proposals as Submitted by Students”, in Skylab Student Project: Information for Teachers (including Classroom Activities) (NASA EP; 106), Washington, D.C....
(broadly, countable) A capability or tendency for a pathogen (chiefly a virus) to infect a type of cell, tissue, organ, or host organism.
- host tropism tissue tropism
- Studies similar to those describe above for cells cultivated in vitro were performed using homogenates of tissues and organs from humans and rhesus monkeys to investigate tissue tropisms in susceptible species […] McLaren (personal communication) found an excellent correlation between poliovirus...1964, J. J. Holland, “Viruses in Animals and in Cell Culture”, in Joan Taylor, editor, Microbial Behaviour, ‘in Vivo’ and ‘in Vitro’: Fourteenth Symposium of the Society for General Microbiology Held...
(countable, figuratively) Of a person: an instinctive predilection or tendency; also (generally), a liking, a preference.
- It is reasonable to suppose that tropism will be less conspicuous in animals which are endowed with intelligence than in others; but well-marked tropisms are still to be found among the higher animals. Gregarious animals have a positive tropism toward the members of their own flock; the dog has a...1911, Isaac A[mada] Cornelison, “Tropism”, in The Natural History of Religious Feeling: A Question of Miracles in the Soul, New York, N.Y.; London: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker...

tropism meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Arabic

tropism in Tamil

turning of an organism or part of an organism either towards or away from a stimulus; an instance of this: திருப்ப அசைவு tiruppa acaivu

tropism in Urdu

turning of an organism or part of an organism either towards or away from a stimulus; an instance of this: رخیت

tropism in Malayalam

turning of an organism or part of an organism either towards or away from a stimulus; an instance of this: അഭിഗതി abhigati

tropism in Arabic

turning of an organism or part of an organism either towards or away from a stimulus; an instance of this: انتحاء

More languagesFewer languages

tropism in Malay: tropisme
tropism in Indonesian: tropisme
tropism in Persian: گرایش
tropism in Thai: การเบนของพืช
tropism in Myanmar: ထရိုပီဇင်း hta.ruipijang:

Examples of tropism in a sentence

This is because positive root tropism toward gravity and negative stem tropism away from gravity.1972 November, “Samples of the Student Proposals as Submitted by Students”, in Skylab Student Project: Information for Teachers (including...
Tropism means that the roots or branches move by turning towards or turning away from environmental stimuli.2021, Michael Friedman, Karin Krauthausen, Barbara Mazzolai, quoting Barbara Mazzolai, “Interview with Barbara Mazzolai: Plants, Plantoids...
HBLV [human B-cell lymphotropic virus] has a broad range of cell tropisms, and it infects B cells, T cells, megakaryocytes, and glioblastoma cells.1989 January 4, Susan P. Spring, Ann Scluederberg, William P. Allen, Jack Gruber, “Commentary: Pathogenic Diversity of Epstein-Barr Virus”...
The capacity of a virus to selectively infect cells in particular organs is referred to as tropism[…].1999, Frederick A. Murphy, E. Paul J. Gibbs, Marian C. Horzinek, Michael J. Studdert, “Mechanisms of Infection and Viral Spread through the...

Forms of tropism

plural	tropisms

Origin of tropism

From -tropism (suffix meaning ‘growth towards; movement, turning’) (possibly based on geotropism and heliotropism), from Latin tropus + English -ism (suffix forming nouns of action, process, or result). Tropus is derived from Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos, “a turn; a manner, style, way; figure of speech, trope; etc.”), from τρέπω (trépō, “to turn; to divert; to rotate or change orientation”) (from Proto-Indo-European *trep- (“to turn”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming nouns of result or abstract nouns of action). Sense 1 (“turning of an organism or part of an organism towards or away from a stimulus”) is modelled after German Tropismus.

Words formed from tropism

Questions about tropism

What does tropism mean?: Tropism means the turning of an organism (chiefly a plant) or part of an organism either towards or away from a stimulus; (countable) an instance of this.
What is tropism in Tamil?: Tropism in Tamil is திருப்ப அசைவு (tiruppa acaivu). See Tropism meaning in Tamil.
How do you use tropism in a sentence?: This is because positive root tropism toward gravity and negative stem tropism away from gravity.
What part of speech is tropism?: Tropism is a noun.
How do you pronounce tropism?: Tropism is pronounced /ˈtɹəʊpɪz(ə)m/ (UK).
What is the plural of tropism?: The plural of tropism is tropisms.

Words near tropism in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: tropism (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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