Standard Lemma guide

paramecium

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˌpæ.ɹəˈmiː.si.əm/
  • General-American: /ˌpɛ.ɹəˈmi.si.əm/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P EH2 R AH0 M IY1 S IY0 AH0 M Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

An oval-shaped protozoan organism of the genus Paramecium.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

any member of the genus Paramecium

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: paramecia

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: ciliate, ciliated protozoan, ciliophoran

History

Etymology

From Ancient Greek παραμήκης (paramḗkēs, “oval”), from μῆκος (mêkos, “length”).

Across languages

Translations

26 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: чехълче (čehǎlče) — organism
  • Catalan: parameci — organism
  • Chinese Mandarin: 草履蟲 /草履虫 (cǎolǚchóng) — organism
  • Dutch: pantoffeldiertje — organism
  • Finnish: tohvelieläin — organism
  • French: paramécie — organism
  • German: Pantoffeltierchen — organism
  • Hebrew: סנדלית (sandalít) — organism
  • Hungarian: papucsállatka — organism
  • Irish: paraiméiciam — organism
  • Italian: paramecio — organism
  • Japanese: 草履虫 (zōrimushi) — organism
  • Korean: 짚신벌레 (jipsinbeolle) — organism
  • Latin: paramecium — organism
  • Malay: paramesium — organism
  • Malay: haiwan kasut — organism
  • Persian: پارامسی (pârâmesi) — organism
  • Polish: pantofelek — organism
  • Portuguese: paramécio — organism
  • Russian: параме́ция (paramécija) — organism
  • Sicilian: parameciu — organism
  • Spanish: paramecio — organism
  • Swedish: toffeldjur — organism
  • Tagalog: paramesyo — organism
  • Vietnamese: trùng đế giày — organism
  • Vietnamese: trùng giày — organism