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Positive or negative reaction to a stimulus source
Answer for the clue "Positive or negative reaction to a stimulus source ", 7 letters:
tropism
Alternative clues for the word tropism
Word definitions for tropism in dictionaries
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. an involuntary orienting response; positive or negative reaction to a stimulus source
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1899, "tendency of an animal or plant to turn or move in response to a stimulus," 1899, abstracted from geotropism or heliotropism , with the second element taken in an absolute sense; ultimately from Greek tropos "a turning" (see trope ).
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
A tropism (from Greek τρόπος, tropos , "a turning") is a biological phenomenon , indicating growth or turning movement of a biological organism , usually a plant, in response to an environmental stimulus . In tropisms, this response is dependent on the ...
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. 1 (context biology English) the turning of an organism in response to a stimulus, either towards or away from the stimulus 2 (context virology English) viral tropism, or which type of tissue supports a certain virus
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tropism \Tro"pism\ (tr[=o]"p[i^]z'm), n. [Gr. troph` a turning, tre`pein to turn + -ism.] (Physiol.) Modification of the direction of growth, caused by some external influence, such as light; -- sometimes used for motion of an organism toward or away ...
Usage examples of tropism.
Perhaps an advanced tropism of some sort, although that does tend to suggest organic intelligence, hmmm?
This may be their basic tropism, the inherent behavioral pattern of their race .
For one thing, a tropism involves the movement of only a portion of an organism such as the root or the stem whereas an animal is likely to move as a whole.
Already he had acquired the strange tropism that attracted him to metals and repelled him from daylight.
The tropism guided him, but he was terrified lest he reach a dead end.
MBL has grown slowly but steadily from the outset, sprouting new buildings from time to time, taking on new functions, expanding, drawing to itself by a sort of tropism greater numbers of biological scientists each summer, attracting students from all parts of the world.
She found herself drifting, realized she was being drawn by some journalist tropism toward Cluster 3, the function rooms clumped beyond the circular escalator well.
He saw the huge lumbering bird twitch toward him as by a tropism, then come speeding.
Had he truly been that adolescent, crouched breathless in an alley behind a dumpster, acknowledging for the first time the undeniable tropism of sexuality?
They take to such things by the same simple tropism that makes plants strain toward the sun or attracts bees to bright colors.
Perhaps their more human half had also played a role, giving them a tropism for dancing flames, for a circle of illumination to bar the surrounding dark.
Nevertheless, the responses of even very simple animals are generally more complicated than those of plants, and to call those responses tropisms would be wrong.
The tropisms of plants and the taxis of simple animals are generalized responses of an entire organism or of a major portion of one to a very generalized stimulus.
The various reflexes I have been talking about are, like the tropisms of plants and the taxis of simple animals, examples of innate behavior behavior that is inborn and does not have to be learned.
After he has arrived at that point, all his mental processes are suspended except those elementary ones, not much more than tropisms, that are concerned with the mechanics of the carnal act itself.