What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Parasite vs Ameba - What's the difference?

parasite | ameba |

As nouns the difference between parasite and ameba

is that parasite is a person who lives on other people's efforts or expense and gives little or nothing back while ameba is an alternative spelling of lang=en.

parasite

Noun

(en noun)
  • (pejorative) A person who lives on other people's efforts or expense and gives little or nothing back.
  • (biology) an organism that lives on or in another organism, deriving benefit from living on or in that other organism, while not contributing towards that other organism sufficiently to cover the cost to that other organism.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03
  • , author= , title=The Smallest Cell , volume=101, issue=2, page=83 , magazine= citation , passage=It is likely that the long evolutionary trajectory of Mycoplasma went from a reductive autotroph to oxidative heterotroph to a cell-wall–defective degenerate parasite . This evolutionary trajectory assumes the simplicity to complexity route of biogenesis, a point of view that is not universally accepted.}}
    ''Lice, fleas, ticks and mites are widely spread parasites .
  • (literary, poetic) A climbing plant which is supported by a wall, trellis etc.
  • * 1813 , (Percy Bysshe Shelley), Queen Mab , I:
  • Her golden tresses shade / The bosom’s stainless pride, / Curling like tendrils of the parasite / Around a marble column.

    Antonyms

    * commensal (doing no noticeable harm) * mutualist or sometimes symbiote (beneficial)

    See also

    * symbiont

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    ameba

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • (us)
  • Usage notes

    * Amoeba is the usual spelling of this word in the US.