Organism

How to spell organism

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce organism

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does organism mean?

1. nounAn individual living thing, such as an animal, plant, or microbe, that functions as a self-contained whole.
2. nounA whole made of interdependent parts that work together, used figuratively of a complex system such as a society or company.

Organism in a sentence

• Every organism in the pond sample was examined under the microscope.

• The report described the city as a living organism that adapts to its residents.

• A single-celled organism can reproduce in a matter of hours.

• Economists often treat the national economy as a single organism.

Where does organism come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek organon, which literally meant a tool or instrument and came to describe the working parts of the body such as the eyes, lungs, or heart. The Greek passed into Latin as organum and then into French and English as the familiar word 'organ'. The fuller form 'organism' was coined in the 1600s and gained scientific currency in the 1700s, built by adding the suffix -ism to convey the idea of an organised, working whole made of interdependent parts. The underlying sense is that a living body is like an arrangement of instruments all functioning together, which is exactly why biologists adopted it for any individual living thing. The same Greek root also lies behind 'organ', 'organise', and 'organic', and remembering that family helps fix the unstressed middle syllable that writers sometimes drop.

How the word is built

• organ (from Greek organon: instrument, bodily organ)
• -ism (noun suffix denoting a system or condition)