MUTUALISM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mutualism mean? 

• MUTUALISM (noun)
  The noun MUTUALISM has 1 sense:

1. the relation between two different species of organisms that are interdependent; each gains benefits from the other

  Familiarity information: MUTUALISM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MUTUALISM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The relation between two different species of organisms that are interdependent; each gains benefits from the other

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Synonyms:

mutualism; symbiosis

Hypernyms ("mutualism" is a kind of...):

interdependence; interdependency; mutuality (a reciprocal relation between interdependent entities (objects or individuals or groups))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mutualism"):

trophobiosis (a symbiotic relation in which one organism protects the other in return for some kind of food product)

 Context examples 

What João dos Santos described was what we now call a mutualism between species.

(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

In the 1960s, University of Pennsylvania biologist Dan Janzen re-described what has become a classic example of biological mutualism: the relationship between acacia-ants and ant-acacia trees.

(Between ants and acacias, timing is everything, National Science Foundation)

In a paper called Reciprocal signaling in honeyguide-human mutualism, Dr Claire Spottiswoode and co-authors (conservationists Keith Begg and Dr Colleen Begg of the Niassa Carnivore Project) reveal that honeyguides are able to respond adaptively to specialised signals given by people seeking their collaboration, resulting in two-way communication between humans and wild birds.

(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Mutualisms are crucial everywhere in nature, but to our knowledge, the only comparable foraging partnership between wild animals and our own species involves free-living dolphins who chase schools of mullet into fishermen’s nets and in so doing manage to catch more for themselves.

(How humans and wild Honeyguide birds call each other to help, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)