Protozoan

//ˌpɹoʊ.təˈzoʊ.ən// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of the diverse group of eukaryotes, of the phylum Protozoa, that are primarily unicellular, existing singly or aggregating into colonies, are usually nonphotosynthetic, and are often classified further into phyla according to their capacity for and means of motility, as by pseudopods, flagella, or cilia.
  2. 2
    any of diverse minute acellular or unicellular organisms usually nonphotosynthetic wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a protozoan. not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to the Protozoa wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
protozoonprotozooidinvertebrateprotozoaprotozoalprotozoal

Example

More examples

"The numbers of each organism varied from day to day in a way that showed conclusively the essentially trophic nature of the protozoan population."

Etymology

From translingual Protozoa + -an, equivalent to proto- + -zoan.

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