protist

pro·tist | \ ˈprō-(ˌ)tist

Definition of protist

: any of a diverse taxonomic group and especially a kingdom (Protista synonym Protoctista) of eukaryotic organisms that are unicellular and sometimes colonial or less often multicellular and that typically include the protozoans, most algae, and often some fungi (such as slime molds)

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Examples of protist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Any genetic material that differed from a protist’s, the team reasoned, was probably the signature of something the microbes had eaten. — Katherine J. Wu New York Times, Star Tribune, "Nothing eats viruses, right? Meet some hungry protists," 24 Sep. 2020 Dicty, the prodigy protist, not only solved this maze but also managed to use its self-generating gradient skills to find a shortcut. — Emily Willingham, Scientific American, "Cells Solve an English Hedge Maze with the Same Skills They Use to Traverse the Body," 28 Aug. 2020 Instead, malaria is a protist, an organism that in some cases dramatically changes form depending on its life cycle. — oregonlive, "Thousands of mosquitoes to help in OHSU’s fight to eliminate malaria," 25 Jan. 2020 Their emergence more than one billion years ago was a foundational event in the development of eukaryotes, which include plants, animals, protists and fungi. — Quanta Magazine, "Tiny Genomes May Offer Clues to First Plants and Animals," 20 June 2013 Until fairly recently, myxosporeans were considered to be protists, offshoots of the eukaryotic line that are neither plants, animals nor fungi. — Quanta Magazine, "Can New Species Evolve From Cancers? Maybe. Here’s How.," 19 Aug. 2019 In his first book are jellyfish that look like flowers, protists that resemble Fabergé eggs, presented like crown jewels on black velvet, the seeming cosmic vastness of the images belying their actual, microscopic size. — The New York Review of Books, "Lucy Jakub," 16 Dec. 2018 The protist also oozes enzymes that burst and destroy human cells and nerves. — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, "Brain-eating amoeba kills again—here’s how it kills and how to avoid it," 26 July 2019 As an undergraduate, her textbooks taught there were five kingdoms of life: plants, animals, bacteria, fungi and protists. — Tony Briscoe, chicagotribune.com, "Minuscule microbes wield enormous power over the Great Lakes. But many species remain a mystery.," 5 July 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'protist.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.