parasitoid

noun

"parasitoid" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“parasitoid” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any organism that is parasitic during part of its life cycle, especially one that eventually kills its host.

Corpus desk

Index EN-parasitoid · parasitoid · English

parasitoid · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "P" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for parasitoid
PropertyValue
Headwordparasitoid
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “parasitoid” in English

parasitoidsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

parasitoid is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any organism that is parasitic during part of its life cycle, especially one that eventually kills its host.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for parasitoid, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From parasite + -oid. The correct English form is parasitoid, spelled P-A-R-A-S-I-T-O-I-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Any organism that is parasitic during part of its life cycle, especially one that eventually kills its host.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how parasitoid appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. All of these solitary parasitoid wasps that use their sting-ovipositors for stinging prey and depositing eggs are subjected to little predatory pressure from large predators.

Etymology

From parasite + -oid.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "parasitoid"?
"parasitoid" is spelled P-A-R-A-S-I-T-O-I-D.
What does "parasitoid" mean?
As a noun, "parasitoid" means: Any organism that is parasitic during part of its life cycle, especially one that eventually kills its host.
What is the origin of the word "parasitoid"?
From parasite + -oid. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list