noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The ecosystem on the surface of a piece of plastic (especially in a marine environment).

   "ut those interested in smaller critters have been given a whole, new sphere—the plastisphere—to study."

Example

More examples

"ut those interested in smaller critters have been given a whole, new sphere—the plastisphere—to study."

Etymology

From plastic + -sphere, analogous to biosphere. Coined by American biologist Linda Amaral-Zettler.

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