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Glite Dictionary
cercarial

cercarial

9.9
About the tiny swimming young stage of a worm that can enter skin and cause sickness
  • adjective
  • /sɜrˈkɛrɪəl/
  • Specialized
: cercarial
  • Cases of cercarial dermatitis are common in regions with infested freshwater lakes.

Examples

  • The patient's skin rash was caused by cercarial penetration during swimming.

  • Researchers observed cercarial movement under the microscope to study infection pathways.

  • The cercarial stage is crucial for the development of the parasite.

  • Researchers studied the cercarial forms to understand their behavior.

  • Swimming in the lake led to a case of cercarial dermatitis due to exposure to the larvae.

  • Doctors warned that cercarial infections can happen if you swim in contaminated waters.

  • The cercarial stage of the parasite is responsible for infecting aquatic animals.

Surface Forms

cercarial positive

Morphology

cercarial = cercaria (semi-transparent) = cercaria + al

The adjective is regularly formed from the technical noun 'cercaria' with -al, but the base word itself is specialized vocabulary.

Etymology

Cercarial comes from cercaria, the name for a swimming larva, and that word comes from an old Greek word kerkos meaning 'tail'. So cercarial means 'relating to those tailed larvae', which helps you remember it describes the larval stage of certain flatworm parasites.