Phage

//feɪd͡ʒ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A virus that is parasitic on bacteria.

    ""The plural word phages refers to different types of phage, whereas in common usage the word phage can be both singular and plural, referring in the plural sense to particles of the same type of phage." Maloy et al: Microbial Genetics, 2nd ed., 1984, →ISBN, p. 81"

  2. 2
    a virus that is parasitic (reproduces itself) in bacteria wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bacteriophagebacteriophage

Example

More examples

""The plural word phages refers to different types of phage, whereas in common usage the word phage can be both singular and plural, referring in the plural sense to particles of the same type of phage." Maloy et al: Microbial Genetics, 2nd ed., 1984, →ISBN, p. 81"

Etymology

From Ancient Greek -φάγος (-phágos, “eater”), from φαγ- (phag-), aorist stem of ἐσθίω (esthíō), ἔδω (édō, “to eat, to consume”).

Related phrases

phage therapy

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