Eucaryot

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An organism made of cells that contain a distinct membrane-bound nucleus holding its genetic material, as in animals, plants, fungi and protists
2. A living thing whose cells enclose their DNA within a defined nucleus, unlike bacteria and archaea, which lack one
3. Any organism with complex cells that have a true nucleus separated from the cytoplasm by a membrane, distinguishing it from prokaryotes

Etymology: "Eucaryot" is an alternative spelling of "eukaryote," and the word was built from Greek parts rather than inherited from any older language. Its first element, "eu-," is the Greek prefix meaning "good" or "well," while "karyon" meant "nut" or "kernel," and by extension the central core of something. The third element, "-ote," is a suffix borrowed through French that marks a living thing, so the whole word reads roughly as "one with a well-formed kernel." The meaning points to the cell's nucleus. Organisms whose cells contain a nucleus enclosed by a membrane, which covers animals, plants, fungi and many single-celled life forms, are called eukaryotes, in contrast to bacteria and archaea, whose genetic material floats freely in the cell. The term was coined in French and then taken into English, reflecting the nineteenth- and twentieth-century scientific habit of building names for newly understood structures from classical roots.

Synonyms: eukaryote, eucaryote

Antonyms: prokaryote