Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

matriphagy

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: ma-t-riphagy
IPA

21

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

3

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The condition where organisms feed on their own mother.

Uncountable

Example Sentences

"As we discover in Parenthood, the mother spider gives her life for her spiderlings, who, when the time is right, slowly but surely creep up on her and their other elderly relatives en masse and eat them alive... making room for the new generation. Known as matriphagy, for director Jeff Wilson this moment provided the scene for "the perfect natural history sequence", as well as "the best narration I've ever heard him [Sir David] do.""

Etymology

From matri- (“mother”) + -phagy (“to feed on”).

Word Breakdown

Prefix: matri-
Suffix: -phagy

Usage

Uncountable

Derived Forms

matriphagous

Questions

What does matriphagy mean?: The condition where organisms feed on their own mother.
Where does matriphagy come from?: From matri- (“mother”) + -phagy (“to feed on”).

How to pronounce matriphagy

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