ROUNDWORM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does roundworm mean? 

• ROUNDWORM (noun)
  The noun ROUNDWORM has 2 senses:

1. infections of the skin or nails caused by fungi and appearing as itching circular patches

2. unsegmented worms with elongated rounded body pointed at both ends; mostly free-living but some are parasitic

  Familiarity information: ROUNDWORM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ROUNDWORM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Infections of the skin or nails caused by fungi and appearing as itching circular patches

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

ringworm; roundworm; tinea

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

fungal infection; mycosis (an inflammatory condition caused by a fungus)

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

dhobi itch (fungal infection attacking moist parts of the body)

kerion (ringworm infection of the hair follicles of the scalp and beard that usually results in a swelling that is covered with pustules and oozes fluid)

athlete's foot; tinea pedis (fungal infection of the feet)

barber's itch; tinea barbae (fungal infection of the face and neck)

tinea capitis (fungal infection of the scalp characterized by bald patches)

tinea corporis (fungal infection of nonhairy parts of the skin)

eczema marginatum; jock itch; tinea cruris (fungal infection of the groin (most common in men))

tinea unguium (fungal infection of the nails (especially toenails))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Unsegmented worms with elongated rounded body pointed at both ends; mostly free-living but some are parasitic

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

nematode; nematode worm; roundworm

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

worm (any of numerous relatively small elongated soft-bodied animals especially of the phyla Annelida and Chaetognatha and Nematoda and Nemertea and Platyhelminthes; also many insect larvae)

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

Ascaris lumbricoides; common roundworm (intestinal parasite of humans and pigs)

Dracunculus medinensis; Guinea worm (parasitic roundworm of India and Africa that lives in the abdomen or beneath the skin of humans and other vertebrates)

filaria (slender threadlike roundworms living in the blood and tissues of vertebrates; transmitted as larvae by biting insects)

hookworm (parasitic bloodsucking roundworms having hooked mouth parts to fasten to the intestinal wall of human and other hosts)

trichina; Trichinella spiralis (parasitic nematode occurring in the intestines of pigs and rats and human beings and producing larvae that form cysts in skeletal muscles)

Tylenchus tritici; wheat eel; wheat eelworm; wheatworm (small roundworm parasitic on wheat)

eelworm (any of various small free-living plant-parasitic roundworms)

Enterobius vermicularis; pinworm; threadworm (small threadlike worm infesting human intestines and rectum especially in children)

Ascaridia galli; chicken roundworm (intestinal parasite of domestic fowl)

Holonyms ("roundworm" is a member of...):

Aschelminthes; Nematoda; phylum Aschelminthes; phylum Nematoda (unsegmented worms: roundworms; threadworms; eelworms)

 Context examples 

Albendazole may also be used to treat a variety of other roundworm infections.

(Albendazole, NCI Thesaurus)

Roundworms—or Caenorhabditis elegans—share a considerable amount of genetic material with humans.

(Roundworms have the Right Stuff, NASA)

In 2007, NHGRI launched modENCODE to catalog functional elements in the Caenorhabditis elegans (roundworm) and Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) genomes.

(Expanding Our Understanding of Genomics, NIH)

Parasitic roundworm; important research model in animal biology, especially for the genetic and molecular basis of development and behavior.

(Caenorhabditis elegans, NIH CRISP Thesaurus)

Roundworm mutants of pals-22 always have IPR genes on, which causes increased tolerance of heat shock and other types of stress.

(New Pathway for Handling Stress Discovered, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Studying the microscopic roundworm C. elegans led the researchers to find that defects in one protein cause animals to reorient themselves over and over again.

(Research on repetitive worm behavior has implications for understanding human diseases, National Science Foundation)

A roundworm of the phylum Nematoda often utilized as a biological model system for research.

(Caenorhabditis elegans, NCI Thesaurus)

Study first author Lavinia Palamiuc, a TSRI research associate, spearheaded this effort by tagging FLP-7 with a fluorescent red protein so that it could be visualized in living animals, possible because the roundworm body is transparent.

(Scientists Find Brain Hormone That Triggers Fat Burning, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Any chemical substance, biological agent or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, including insects, plant pathogens, weeds, mollusks, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms) and microbes that compete with humans for food, destroy property, spread or are a vector for disease or are a nuisance.

(Pesticide, NCI Thesaurus)

Roundworms, like fruit flies, are often used as models for larger organisms.

(Roundworms have the Right Stuff, NASA)