Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🦠 Able to adapt 🧠 Mental powers ✅ Optional
facultative

facultative

1 9.9
An organism able to live in more than one set of conditions
  • adjective
  • /fæˈkʌltətɪv/
  • Specialized
translation icon : facultativo
  • Some plants are facultative species, able to grow in various soil types depending on the moisture available.
  • facultative anaerobe
  • facultative aerobe
  • facultative or obligate

Examples

  • The majority of sepsis-causing bacteria are facultative anaerobes.

    Academic text (2017)

  • In examining normal composts, we have found that the majority of bacteria in moderately mature materials are facultative anaerobes or aerobes.

    Academic text (1996)

  • So we want to provide enough oxygen for all aerobic organisms to prosper, and for facultative organisms to stay in the aerobic mode.

    Academic text (1999)

  • The relationship between the squid and bacteria appears to be a facultative one, in which the bacterium retains its ability to thrive in several niches.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Migrants are often classified as either obligate or facultative, depending on whether they always migrate or do so only in response to the current deterioration of local conditions.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The Pseudomonas genera are facultative anaerobes that can persist in oxygen-depleted environments by breaking down complex hydrocarbons for the oxygen.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Facultative organisms can adapt to live in both aquatic and terrestrial environments, showing incredible versatility.

  • The study revealed that facultative bacteria can thrive with or without oxygen, depending on the surrounding conditions.

Antonyms

obligate
  • Specialized
1 8.6

Limited to one way of life and cannot live anywhere else

How Flexible

adaptable
23 3.4
facultative
  • Specialized
1 9.9
tolerant
  • Specialized
13 4.4
specialized
  • US
70 5.4
obligate
  • Specialized
1 8.6

Surface Forms

facultative positive

Morphology

facultative = faculty (transparent) = facult + ative

In biological contexts 'facultative' means 'having the ability' to function under different conditions, which follows directly from the base sense of 'faculty' as ability.

Etymology

Facultative comes from the Latin facultas meaning 'ability' and is related to faculty, the idea of what someone or something can do. That's why in biology facultative describes living things or processes that can work in more than one way, for example bacteria that can live with or without oxygen.