What is "parasitoid"

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

A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism in a relationship that is in essence parasitic; unlike a true parasite, however, it ultimately sterilizes or kills, and sometimes consumes, the host. Thus, parasitoids are similar to typical parasites except in the more dire prognosis for the host.