LIFE FORM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does life form mean? 

• LIFE FORM (noun)
  The noun LIFE FORM has 1 sense:

1. the characteristic bodily form of a mature organism

  Familiarity information: LIFE FORM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LIFE FORM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The characteristic bodily form of a mature organism

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("life form" is a kind of...):

body; organic structure (the entire physical structure of an organism (an animal, plant, or human being))

 Context examples 

Researchers have found that phosphine could be a pure biosignature and a sign of life where life forms don't require oxygen to thrive.

(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Some life forms can survive without oxygen, but oxygen permits more energy-intensive metabolism.

(Simple animals could live in Martian brines, Wikinews)

Lopez Garcia said, “We would not expect to find life forms in similar environments on other planets, at least not based on a biochemistry similar to terrestrial biochemistry.”

(Place discovered on earth with no microbial life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Fossil evidence shows that plants have engaged in close-interactions with microbial life forms throughout their evolutionary history.

(Ancient defence strategy continues to protect plants from pathogens, University of Cambridge)

The metabolism of microbial life forms.

(Microbial Physiology, NCI Thesaurus)

The cycling of material between the ocean and ice shell could potentially provide sources of chemical energy that could sustain simple life forms.

(NASA Issues 'Remastered' View of Jupiter's Moon Europa, NASA)

Prior to the Ediacaran period, between 635 and 541 million years ago, life forms were microscopic in size, but during the Ediacaran, large, complex organisms first appeared, some of which – such as a type of organism known as rangeomorphs – grew as tall as two metres.

(Why life on Earth first got big, University of Cambridge)

The NSB contains some of the oldest sedimentary rocks known on Earth which likely formed part of an iron-rich deep-sea hydrothermal vent system that provided a habitat for Earth's first life forms between 3,770 and 4,300 million years ago.

(World's Oldest Fossils Unearthed, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

An international team led by scientists from Brown University in the United States said the planet Mars once had the right water and temperatures to host simple life forms — just not on its surface.

(Study suggests Mars hosted life-sustaining habitat for millions of years, Wikinews)

Now MIT researchers have found that phosphine is produced by another, less abundant life form: anaerobic organisms, such as bacteria and microbes, that don't require oxygen to thrive.

(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)