Bio Words referring to “life” :
“calobiosis” to “eremobiontic”
Part 16 of 20
bio-, bi-, -bia, -bial, -bian, -bion, -biont, -bius, -biosis, -bium, -biotic, -biotical, -biotic (Greek: life; living, live, alive).
Don’t confuse this element with another bi- that means “two”.
If you would like to take a self-scoring quiz over some of the words in this section, then click
Bio-Quiz so you can see how much you know about the following
“bio” words.
calobiosis:
A form of symbiosis in which one species becomes temporarily the guest of another.
catabiotic:
Used up while carrying on of the vital processes other than growth, or in the performance of function, referring to the energy derived from food.
catachronobiology:
The study of the deleterious effects of time on a living system.
caustobiolith:
A combustible organic rock, such as coal peat, of plant origin.
chemobiodynamics:
Study devoted to elucidation of correlations between the chemical constitution of various materials and their ability to modify the function and morphology of biological systems.
cenobium, coenobium:
Used to describe plant or animal organisms occurring in colonies of discrete individuals.
chronobiology:
That aspect of biology concerned with the timing of biological events, especially repetitive or cyclic phenomena in individual organisms.
cleptobiosis:
A form of symbiosis based on theft, best known in ants in which one species will systematically steal the collected food of another laboring species.
coprobiont, coprobiontic:
Any animal (coprozoite) or plant (coprophyte) living or feeding on dung.
cryobiology:
The study of the effects of low temperatures on living organisms.
cryptobiosis:
1. The condition in which all external signs of metabolic activity are absent from a dormant organism.
2. The condition of an organism that must in theory have at one time existed, but that has left no fossil traces.
cryptobios, cryptobiotic:
A reference to organisms that are typically hidden or concealed in crevices or under stones.
dark biology:
Scientific research related to biological weapons. The phrase dark biology was coined by the science writer and novelist Richard Preston in his self-described "trilogy on dark biology": The Hot Zone (1994), The Cobra Event (1997), and The Demon In the Freezer (2002).
diplobiont:
A plant flowering or bearing fruit twice in a season.
ecobiosis:
The conditions pertaining to a mode of life within a specific habitat.
ectosymbiosis, ectosymbiont:
Symbiosis in which one symbiont lives on the outside of the body of the other.
emantiobiosis:
Inhibition of, or interference with, one species or population by the action of another.
endobiontic:
Used of organisms that live within the substratum.
endobiosis:
Either the condition of an organism that lives within another (usually with the connotation of parasitism) or the condition of those benthic organisms that live in the surface of bottom mud.
endobiotic:
Living as a parasite within the host.
endobiotics:
The science of hygienic living.
endosymbiosis, endosymbiont, endosymbiotic:
Symbiosis in which one symbiont lives within the body of another as green algae in Hydra or Convoluta.
eobiogenesis:
The transformation of prebiotic macromolecular systems into the first living organisms (eobionts).
eobionts:
1. An organism that lives on the body surface of another without feeding upon its host, as in many mosses and lichens.
2. The earliest known living organisms developed from some prebiotic macromolecular precursors.
epibiontic, epibiotic, epibiont:
Living attached to another organism without any connotation of mutualism. Urchins and grazing fishes feed on epibionts of reefs and often scrape off bits of calcium carbonate; resulting in bioerosion.
epibiosis:
Either the condition of those organisms that live on the surface of another organism or those benthic organisms that live on the surface of bottom mud.
epibiotic:
Living attached to another organism; such as, fungus.
eremobiologist:
A specialist in the science of desert life.
eremobiology:
The study, or science, of desert life.
eremobiontic:
Living in desert regions.
You may take a self-scoring quiz over some of the words in this section by just clicking on
Bio Quiz #6 to check your word knowledge.