zooxanthella
UK/zuːzanˈθɛlə/
zooxanthella noun: any of the yellow pigmentary particles, or minute corpuscles of yellow coloring matter, found in certain radiolarians.
Noun
zooxanthella (plural zooxanthellae)
- Any of the yellow pigmentary particles, or minute corpuscles of yellow coloring matter, found in certain radiolarians.
- Any of various typically yellow-brown dinoflagellates (originally grouped as genus Zooxanthella) now assigned to the genera Symbiodinium and Amphidinium, notably found in coral reefs.
- One genus, the zooxanthellae, live in symbiosis with tropical corals and other animals including clams, jellyfish and nudibranchs, providing in some cases as much as 90 per cent of the nutrients the anima needs in return for a safe home.2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Granta Books, published 2013, page 289
- The zooxanthellae produce carbohydrates, via photosynthesis, and the polyps harvest these carbohydrates, much as farmers harvest corn.2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, chapter 7, in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Henry Holt and Company
Forms of zooxanthella
| plural | zooxanthellae |
|---|
Origin of zooxanthella
From (deprecated) genus name Zooxanthella, from Ancient Greek ζῷον (zōîon, “animal”) + ξανθός (xanthós, “yellow”) + -ella.
Words formed from zooxanthella
Words that rhyme with zooxanthella
- stella
- columella
- Ella
- cinderella
- umbrella
- stracciatella
- a cappella
- fella
- ambarella
- citronella
- Coachella
- columnella
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- hella
- lamella
- micella
- mozzarella
- nigella
- predella
- salmonella
- Tudela
- varicella
- acanthella
- Adela
- amborella
- Bella
- brucella
- candela
- canella
- capitella
- castella
- cella
- cerebella
- chlorella
- clitella
- favela
- fellah
- flabella
- flagella
- fraxinella
- Gabriella
- haustella
- klebsiella
- labella
- mistella
- moraxella
- mortadella
- novella
- paella
- panatela
- petronella
- portabella
- prunella
- quinella
- rostella
- rubella
- scutella
- selaginella
- shigella
- subumbrella
- tarantella
Questions about zooxanthella
- What does zooxanthella mean?
- Zooxanthella means any of the yellow pigmentary particles, or minute corpuscles of yellow coloring matter, found in certain radiolarians.
- What part of speech is zooxanthella?
- Zooxanthella is a noun.
- How do you pronounce zooxanthella?
- Zooxanthella is pronounced /zuːzanˈθɛlə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of zooxanthella?
- The plural of zooxanthella is zooxanthellae.
Words near zooxanthella in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: zooxanthella (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-zooxanthella.ogg.
Cite this entry: “zooxanthella.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/zooxanthella. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.