Schistosome

//ˈʃɪ.stə(ʊ)ˌsəʊm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A parasitic flatworm which needs two hosts to complete its life cycle. The immature form infests freshwater snails and the adult lives in the blood vessels of birds and mammals, causing bilharzia in humans.
  2. 2
    flatworms parasitic in the blood vessels of mammals wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
blood flukeblood fluke

Example

More examples

"Four weeks later, stool samples were collected from a random sample of 1,284 youngsters to test for the presence of schistosome eggs. Researchers report in the journal PLOS Medicine that children who ate something before getting the medicine had half as many eggs in their stool as those at non-snack schools."

Etymology

From translingual Schistosoma, from Ancient Greek σχιστός (skhistós, “cleaved, divided”) + σῶμα (sôma, “body”).

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