- symbiosis
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/sim'bee oh"sis, -buy-/, n., pl. symbioses /-seez/.1. Biol.a. the living together of two dissimilar organisms, as in mutualism, commensalism, amensalism, or parasitism.2. Psychiatry. a relationship between two people in which each person is dependent upon and receives reinforcement, whether beneficial or detrimental, from the other.3. Psychoanal. the relationship between an infant and its mother in which the infant is dependent on the mother both physically and emotionally.4. any interdependent or mutually beneficial relationship between two persons, groups, etc.
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Any of several living arrangements between members of two different species, including commensalism, mutualism, and parasitism.The species involved are called symbionts. In commensalism, one species (the commensal) obtains nutrients, shelter, support, or locomotion from the host species, which is substantially unaffected (e.g., remoras obtain locomotion and food from sharks). In mutualism, both species benefit. Many mutualistic relationships are obligative; neither species can live without the other (e.g., protozoans in the gut of termites digest the wood ingested by the termites).* * *
▪ biologyany of several living arrangements between members of two different species, including mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism (qq.v.). Both positive (beneficial) and negative (unfavourable to harmful) associations are therefore included, and the members are called symbionts.Any association between two species populations that live together is symbiotic, whether the species benefit, harm, or have no effect on one another.* * *
Universalium. 2010.