commensalism
/kəˈmɛnsəˌlɪzm̩/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.25 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A sharing of the same environment by two organisms where one species benefits and the other is unaffected. An example is barnacles on whales.
Countable; Uncountable
Etymology
Etymology tree English commensal Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō) Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *-mós Ancient Greek -μός (-mós) Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismós)der. English -ism English commensalism From commensal + -ism.