Heterobiont

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. An organism whose cells or life stages include both photosynthetic and heterotrophic nutrition, drawing energy in more than one way
2. A living thing that combines self-feeding photosynthesis with consuming other organic matter at different points in its life or within its body
3. Describing an organism that mixes autotrophic and heterotrophic nutritional modes, such as certain protists that photosynthesize yet also ingest food

Etymology: "Heterobiont" is a technical coinage built from two Greek-derived parts: "hetero-", from Greek "heteros" meaning "other" or "different", and "-biont", from Greek "biōn", the present participle of "bioein", "to live". Together they describe an organism whose "other" life is the one that matters, and the combination is a modern scientific formation rather than an ancient Greek word. The term is used in biology to refer to organisms that combine different kinds of cells or life forms in ways that are not simply a single plant or animal body. Its construction follows the same pattern as many scientific terms built from classical roots, where Greek elements were assembled in the 19th and 20th centuries to name newly described things. Because the word is assembled from two transparent elements, its meaning can be read straight from its parts.