Meaning & use
heterotroph
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Meaning
nouncountablebiology
A living thing that cannot make its own food and must get energy by eating other organisms or their remains.
Grammar: Countable: one heterotroph, many heterotrophs.
Patterns
- a heterotroph feeds on something
A deer is a heterotroph because it eats plants rather than making food itself.
Fungi are heterotrophs that digest dead matter around them.
Without plants, every heterotroph in the food chain would starve.
Word forms
| plural | heterotrophs |
|---|
Common combinations
- obligate heterotroph
- Humans are obligate heterotrophs and need ready-made food.
- aerobic heterotroph
- Many bacteria in soil are aerobic heterotrophs.
- autotrophs and heterotrophs
- Autotrophs and heterotrophs depend on each other in an ecosystem.
- heterotroph feeds on
- A heterotroph feeds on other living or dead organisms.
Synonyms and how they differ
- consumer
- Consumer is the ecology word for a heterotroph in a food chain, but it is less exact because it ignores decomposers.
- decomposer
- A decomposer is a specific kind of heterotroph that feeds on dead matter.
Opposites
Word family
- heterotrophic adjective
- relating to organisms that must eat other organisms for energy
- heterotrophy noun
- the way of feeding that depends on other organisms
- autotroph noun
- an organism that makes its own food
Commonly confused: heterotroph or heterotrophic? heterotroph or heterogeneous?
heterotroph vs heterotrophic
Heterotrophic is the adjective; heterotroph is the noun naming the organism.
heterotroph vs heterogeneous
Heterogeneous means made of different kinds; it is not about feeding.
Practice
Which of these living things is a heterotroph?
Choose one answer.
A mushroom is a fungus that absorbs food from other matter, so it is a heterotroph. The oak, grass and seaweed make food by photosynthesis, so they are autotrophs.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “heterotroph”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.