symbiosis

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: sym=bi=o=sis

CIDE DICTIONARY

symbiosis, n. [NL., fr. Gr. symbi`wsis a living together, symbioy^n to live together; sy`n with + to live.].

 The living together in more or less imitative association or even close union of two dissimilar organisms. In a broad sense the term includes parasitism, or antagonistic symbiosis or antipathetic symbiosis, in which the association is disadvantageous or destructive to one of the organisms, but ordinarily it is used of cases where the association is advantageous, or often necessary, to one or both, and not harmful to either. When there is bodily union (in extreme cases so close that the two form practically a single body, as in the union of algæ and fungi to form lichens, and in the inclusion of algæ in radiolarians) it is called conjunctive symbiosis; if there is no actual union of the organisms (as in the association of ants with myrmecophytes), disjunctive symbiosis.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

symbiosis, n. (pl. symbioses)
1 a an interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, usu. to the advantage of both (cf. ANTIBIOSIS). b an instance of this.
2 a a mutually advantageous association or relationship between persons. b an instance of this.

Derivative

symbiotic adj. symbiotically adv.

Etymology

mod.L f. Gk sumbiosis a living together f. sumbioo live together, sumbios companion (as SYN-, bios life)

THESAURUS

symbiosis

accompaniment, accordance, agglomeration, agglutination, aggregation, agreement, alliance, articulation, association, bipartisanship, bond, bracketing, cahoots, clustering, co-working, coaction, coadjuvancy, coadministration, coagency, cochairmanship, codirectorship, coincidence, collaboration, collaborativeness, collectivism, collectivity, collusion, combination, combined effort, commensalism, commensality, common effort, common enterprise, communalism, communication, communism, communitarianism, community, complicity, concatenation, concert, concerted action, concomitance, concord, concordance, concourse, concurrence, confluence, congeries, conglomeration, conjugation, conjunction, connection, consilience, conspiracy, convergence, cooperation, cooperativeness, copulation, correspondence, coupling, duet, duumvirate, ecology, ecosystem, ecumenicalism, ecumenicism, ecumenism, esprit, esprit de corps, fellow feeling, fellowship, gathering, harmony, hookup, intercommunication, intercourse, interlinking, joinder, joining, joining of forces, joint effort, joint operation, jointure, junction, knotting, liaison, linkage, linking, marriage, mass action, meeting, merger, merging, morale, mutual assistance, mutualism, mutuality, octet, pairing, parasitism, pooling, pooling of resources, pulling together, quartet, quintet, reciprocity, saprophytism, septet, sextet, simultaneity, solidarity, splice, symbiotics, synchronism, synergism, synergy, team spirit, teamwork, tie, tie-in, tie-up, trio, triumvirate, troika, unification, union, united action, yoking