Standard Lemma guide

heterotroph

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈhɛt(ə)ɹə(ʊ)tɹəʊf/
  • UK: /hɛt(ə)ɹə(ʊ)ˈtɹɒf/
  • US: /ˈhɛtəɹəˌtɹoʊf/
  • US: /-ˌtɹɒf/

1

noun

Meaning 1

An organism which requires an external supply of energy and nutrients under the form of food containing organic carbon as it cannot synthesize its own.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, ecology, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

an organism that depends on complex organic substances for nutrition

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: organism, being

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sem- Proto-Indo-European *sḿ̥teros Proto-Hellenic *hə́teros Ancient Greek ἕτερος (héteros)lbor. English hetero- English -troph English heterotroph From hetero- (“other”) + -troph (“nutrition”).

Across languages

Translations

19 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 異營生物 /异营生物 (yìyíng shēngwù) — organism
  • Chinese Mandarin: 異養生物 /异养生物 (yìyǎng shēngwù) — organism
  • Finnish: heterotrofi — organism
  • Finnish: toisenvarainen — organism
  • Finnish: kuluttaja — organism
  • French: hétérotrophe — organism
  • German: Heterotroph — organism
  • Indonesian: heterotrof — organism
  • Irish: heitreatrófach — organism
  • Italian: eterotrofo — organism
  • Japanese: 従属栄養生物 (jūzoku eiyō seibutsu) — organism
  • Kazakh: гетеротроф (geterotrof) — organism
  • Korean: 종속영양생물 (jongsogyeong'yangsaengmul) — organism
  • Kyrgyz: гетеротроф (geterotrof) — organism
  • Polish: heterotrof — organism
  • Romanian: heterotrof — organism
  • Spanish: heterótrofo — organism
  • Spanish: nutrición heterótrofa — organism
  • Vietnamese: sinh vật dị dưỡng — organism