trophic
adjective
of or relating to nutrition; concerned in nutritive processes.
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trophic
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-trophic
-trophica combining form with the meanings “having nutritional habits or requirements” of the kind specified by the initial element (autotrophic ), “affecting the activity of, maintaining” that specified (gonadotrophic ) (in this sense often interchangeable with-tropic ); also forming adjectives corresponding to nouns ending in -troph or -trophy (hypertrophic ).
trophic
1 American
[trof-ik, troh-fik]
/ ˈtrɒf ɪk, ˈtroʊ fɪk /
adjective
-trophic
2
American
trophic
British
/ ˈtrɒfɪk /
adjective
trophic
Scientific
/ trŏf′ĭk /
Usage
What does -trophic mean? The combining form -trophic is used like a suffix for a variety of meanings, including "having nutritional habits or requirements." In other words, the sense of -trophic specifies how an organism gets its nutrition or how it feeds. The combining form -trophic is also used as an adjective form of nouns ending with -troph or -trophy. In some cases, -trophic means "affecting the activity of, maintaining." In this sense, it is often synonymous with -tropic. The combining form -trophic is often used in scientific terms, especially in biology and anatomy. It comes from the Greek trophikós, meaning “pertaining to food.”Corresponding forms of -trophic combined to the beginning of words are tropho- and troph-. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use -troph, -trophy, tropho-, and troph- articles.
Other Word Forms
- trophically adverb
Etymology
Origin of trophic1
First recorded in 1870–75, trophic is from the Greek word trophikós pertaining to food. See tropho-, -ic
Origin of -trophic2
see origin at trophic
Explanation
Trophic things have something to do with food, eating, or nutrition. You're most likely to encounter this word in an Earth science or biology textbook, where you might read about trophic webs, or interconnected food chains. Many important ideas in the study of ecology, or the science of how organisms relate to their environment and each other, have some connection to trophic subjects. One example is a "trophic cascade," an upset in the food chain that happens when large numbers of predators are removed. Trophic has a Greek root, trophe, "nourishment or food."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Within weeks the pigs, like the rest of the farm animals within the bounds of the park, would be gone, and the whole trophic system would change.
From New York Times • Jan. 16, 2024
Studies have backed this up, showing a top-down cycle of consequences called a trophic cascade.
From National Geographic • Jan. 4, 2024
The scientists suspect brown carbon is being transferred to aboveground consumers, like the mammals and spiders, in a series of predation events known as trophic pathways.
From Science Daily • Jan. 3, 2024
When sea otters were reintroduced to an Alaskan island, they triggered a trophic cascade that led to the return of offshore kelp.
From Scientific American • Oct. 19, 2023
It is possible that the reflected impulse stimulates trophic nerves.
From The Sexual Life of the Child by Paul, Eden
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.