Oocyst

//ˈəʊəsɪst// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A reproductive cell in certain fungi. archaic
  2. 2
    A thick-walled spore in the lifecycle of some parasitic protozoans that develops into sporozoite.

    "Ross had found in the stomach wall of an Anopheles mosquito the oocysts (eggs) which are the intermediate stage of the Plasmodium life cycle."

Example

More examples

"Ross had found in the stomach wall of an Anopheles mosquito the oocysts (eggs) which are the intermediate stage of the Plasmodium life cycle."

Etymology

From oo- + cyst.

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