Heterotroph

//ˈhɛtəɹəˌtɹoʊf// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An organism which requires an external supply of energy and nutrients under the form of food containing organic carbon as it cannot synthesize its own.

    "Woody detritus is an important component of forested ecosystems. It can reduce erosion and affects soil development, stores nutrients and water, provides a major source of energy and nutrients, and serves as a seedbed for plants and as a major habitat for decomposers and heterotrophs."

  2. 2
    an organism that depends on complex organic substances for nutrition wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
allotrophautotrophconsumer

Example

More examples

"Woody detritus is an important component of forested ecosystems. It can reduce erosion and affects soil development, stores nutrients and water, provides a major source of energy and nutrients, and serves as a seedbed for plants and as a major habitat for decomposers and heterotrophs."

Etymology

From hetero- (“other”) + -troph (“nutrition”).

Related phrases

myco-heterotroph

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.