Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
sporozoite

sporozoite

1 9.9
A tiny moving parasite cell that a mosquito injects into people
  • noun
  • /ˈspɔːrəzoʊaɪt/
  • Specialized
: esporozoito
  • When an infected mosquito bites, it injects saliva containing parasite cells that are called sporozoites.
  • Plasmodium sporozoites

Examples

  • Sometimes they're sporozoites, sometimes they're marozoites, sometimes they're gametocytes.

  • The infective vector then injects the sporozoite into the human host.

  • Some of the sporozoites develop into hypnozoites in the human liver.

Surface Forms

sporozoite singular
sporozoites plural

Morphology

sporozoite = sporo + zoite

The elements 'sporo-' and '-zoite' are specialized combining forms used in biological terminology and are not recognizable to an average B1 learner, so the sense cannot be derived from the parts.

Etymology

The word sporozoite comes from sporo- meaning 'spore', a tiny seed-like cell, and -zoite from zoo meaning 'animal', as in zoo or zoology. So a sporozoite is a spore-like, moving form of a parasite that behaves like a little animal to enter and infect a host.