paramecia

1 8.5

Very small one-celled animals that live in fresh water and look like tiny slippers

noun
/ˌpærəˈmiːʃə/

Specialized

: paramecios

Under the microscope, I observed several paramecia moving gracefully through the water.

Examples

In biology class, we learned how paramecia are single-celled organisms that thrive in freshwater environments.
The example from last time was the the zebra mussels and the paramecia, Gauss's paramecia in the in the test tubes excluding the other.
The secret to its movement is cilia, those microscopic hairlike organelles that fringe paramecia to help them wiggle through water.

Academic text (2009)
The scientist collected samples from the pond to study the paramecia and other microorganisms present.

Surface Forms

paramecium singular

paramecia plural

Morphology

paramecia = paramecium (transparent) = paramecium + a

Clear plural formation from the singular 'paramecium' to 'paramecia' (the Latin -ium → -ia plural), so the meaning is simply plural.

Etymology

Paramecia comes from the scientific name paramecium, which is made from Greek parts including para- meaning 'beside' and other parts that describe its little slipper shape. So, paramecia are the small, slipper-shaped single-celled pond animals students study under a microscope.