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organismal

organismal

1 8.1
Relating to the whole living thing rather than its parts
  • adjective
  • /ˌɔrɡəˈnɪzməl/
  • Specialized
: organismal
  • In organismal biology, understanding how an organism functions as a whole is crucial to the study.
  • organismal biology
  • organismal evolution
  • organismal biologists

Examples

  • Hormones and growth factors are typically produced in response to slow, global alterations in organismal state, such as chronic stress or changes in dietary patterns.

    Academic text (2017)
  • At the organismal level, however, sexual reproduction is not the same as duplication.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Development of the organismal biology community.

    Academic text (2013)
  • Communities of organismal biologists must collectively develop and agree on common standards for terminology and data structures.

    Academic text (2013)
  • The first paper, by Lynch and Wagner, tests Dollo's Law at the organismal level.

    Blog text (23)
  • Organismal biology also focuses on the role of individual variability in the evolutionary maintenance of diversity.

    Academic text (2013)
  • A renewed focus on organismal biology is inevitably interdisciplinary, and it faces all of the well-known challenges of interdisciplinary research.

    Academic text (2013)
  • Organismal biology of plants: What morphological and physiological features are characteristic of high-yielding plant varieties?

    Academic text (2004)
  • But in treating them solely as a community-level ecological phenomenon, we overlook their organismal-level features and their significance in mycology and botany.

    Academic text (2001)
  • Organismal ecology studies how different species interact as part of a larger ecosystem.

Synonyms

organismic
vsorganismal
  • Specialized
1 8.1

Relating to a living thing seen as a whole

has identical meaning but is an alternative adjective form

Antonyms

29 4.4

Not whole because it is broken into separate parts

13 6.0

Not clear or organized, with ideas that jump around

Surface Forms

organismal positive

Morphology

organismal = organism (transparent) = organism + al

The adjective is formed regularly from 'organism' with the suffix '-al', and its meaning is directly related to the whole organism.

Etymology

The word organismal comes from organism and the part organ, which means 'tool' or a 'body part' that does a job. So organismal means 'relating to the whole living being', because an organism is a living thing made of parts that work together.