Meaning & use
Xenic
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Describing a laboratory culture that contains one or more unidentified or uncontrolled organisms, as opposed to a pure, single-organism culture.
See it in a sentence
The researchers grew the algae under xenic conditions before later isolating an axenic strain.
A xenic culture can still be useful for studying how organisms interact with their natural microbial community.
A note on using this word
Contrasts with "axenic" (free of other organisms) and "monoxenic" (containing exactly one known contaminant species); common in microbiology and phycology.
Words with an opposite meaning
axenic
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