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Glite Dictionary
trichomonad

trichomonad

9.9
A tiny single-celled parasite that can cause infections in animals and people
  • noun
  • /ˌtrɪkəˈmoʊnæd/
  • Specialized
: tricomona
  • The doctor identified the infection as caused by a type of trichomonad parasite.

Examples

  • Some trichomonad species can lead to urinary tract infections in humans.

  • In laboratory tests, the trichomonad was shown to thrive in a moist environment.

  • The minimum lethal concentration (MLC) was the lowest dilution at which no motile trichomonads could be observed from an isolate assay.

    Academic text (2012)

Surface Forms

trichomonad singular
trichomonads plural

Morphology

trichomonad = monad (opaque) = tricho + monad

Both elements are specialized Greek combining forms used in technical biological terminology and are unlikely to be productive or meaningful for an average B1 learner.

Etymology

The word trichomonad comes from Greek parts tricho- meaning 'hair' and -monad meaning 'single', like mono- for 'one'. A helpful way to remember it is that a trichomonad is a single-celled parasite with hair-like tails, so the name suggests a 'hairy one' and matches the modern meaning.