How do you use the word "parasite" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "parasite" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "parasite": You're nothing more than a social parasite! The alien is a small intelligent multidimensional parasite that attaches to the host's nervous system.

Parasite Meaning

/ˈpæɹəˌsaɪt/

Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounAn 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.

Sentence Examples

You're nothing more than a social parasite!

The alien is a small intelligent multidimensional parasite that attaches to the host's nervous system.

Tom ate a salad contaminated with the cyclospora parasite.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

sponge leech

Antonyms:

host

CEFR Practice Quiz

The flea acts as a ____ on dogs, drinking their blood for nutrition.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The tapeworm is a ____ that lives inside the intestines of its host and absorbs nutrients.

Word Origin & History

From Middle French parasite, from Latin parasitus, from Ancient Greek παράσιτος (parásitos, “person who eats at the table of another”), from noun use of adjective meaning "feeding beside", from παρά (pará, “beside”) + σῖτος (sîtos, “food”).

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"...and the mistletoe crept round many of the oaks—that pleasant parasite, whose associations belong rather to the hearth and lighted hall than to its native branches." — 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 154:

"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. This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted." — 2013 March 26, Harold J. Morowitz, “The Smallest Cell”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2017, page 83:

"He lacks, however, even the basic Dr. Kildare lingo about medical issues. For instance, he regularly misidentifies poppers as amyl nitrate, instead of amyl nitrite — two forms of heart medicine with different affects ^([sic]). Salmonella, a bacteria, is not usually classified as a parasite. And he mistakenly writes, "lenti means slow" in the lentiviruses. ("Lenti" means lens-shaped, biologists classify by structure, not by behavior.)" — 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:

"Select a disease class Virus: Fastest evolution, Most affected by environment, Bonus to infectivity Bacteria: Medium evolution, Normally affected by environment, Bonus to drug resistance Parasite: Slowest evolution, Least affected by environment, Low visibility" — 2008 July 14, Dark Realm Studios, Pandemic II, Web:

"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):

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