Dictionary

extremophile en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ɛkˈʃtɹiməˌfaɪ̯əl/ (US)

Etymology

Etymology tree English extreme Ancient Greek -ο- (-o-)der. Latin -o-bor. English -o- Proto-Indo-European *bʰil- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *bʰil-o-s Ancient Greek φίλος (phílos)bor. Latin -philalbor. English -phile English extremophile From extreme + -o- + -phile.

Meanings

1. Any of many organisms that live under extreme conditions of temperature, pressure, salinity, etc; many are autotrophs; some are commercially important as a source of enzymes that operate under similar conditions.
   • Lichens are 'extremophiles', organisms able to live, from our point of view, in other worlds. 2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 95:
   • They had found the world's first extremophiles – organisms that could live in water that had previously been assumed to be much too hot or acid or choked with sulphur to bear life. 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA, page 207:

Forms

Coordinates

mesophile

Deriveds

hyperextremophile · extremophilic

Hypernyms

organism

Translations (14)

gl extremófilo (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · cmn 嗜極生物 /嗜极生物 (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · ca extremòfil (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · nl extremofiel (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · fi ekstremofiili (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · pl ekstremofil (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · sv extremofil (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · ru экстремофи́л (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · es extremófilo (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · fr extrêmophile (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · el ακραιόφιλος (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · it estremofilo (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · pt extremófilo (organism that lives under extreme conditions) · el ακρόφιλος (organism that lives under extreme conditions)