halophile
- noun
- /ˈhæləˌfaɪl/
- Specialized
- Researchers discovered that halophiles can survive in conditions with salt concentrations much higher than seawater.
Examples
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Halophiles are microorganisms that thrive in extremely salty environments, such as the Great Salt Lake.
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Another group of extremophiles, the halophiles, grow in highly saline environments like natural salt lakes and solar salt-evaporation ponds.
Academic text (2000) -
And I took my Halo arcula halophile, the archaeal halophile.
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I throw this up here to let you know that the halophile salt loving organisms are found throughout the tree of life in the Eukarya, the bacteria and the Archaea.
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In the study, the halophile bacteria were isolated from salt pans where no other life could be found.
Synonyms
A microbe that needs very salty water or soil to live
How Salt-Tolerant
- Specialized
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
halophile = halo + phile
The term is directly compositional in scientific English, but its parts are classical combining forms rather than ordinary standalone English words.
Etymology
The word halophile comes from Greek parts halo- meaning 'salt' and -phile meaning 'lover', like in bibliophile ('book lover'). So a halophile is literally a 'salt-lover', an organism that lives well in very salty places.