phagism

P3H4A1G2I1S1M3

noun

A trophic pattern (one of monophagy, oligophagy, or polyphagy).

Scrabble 15
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Meanings

nounphagism (uncountable)
  1. uncountableA trophic pattern (one of monophagy, oligophagy, or polyphagy).

    The relation of the said groups of phagism to the life - forms of the plants they live on is shown in Table 9.

    1969, Andrzej Samuel Kostrowicki, Geography of the Palaearctic Papilionoidea (Lepidoptera)., Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe Oddział, page 71
    2 more examples

    Finally, Brues' third prediction regarding the presence of regional and/or seasonal preferences (i.e., Brues' host races) appears fairly well documented for insects of all phagism categories ( Brues, 1923; 1946; Buxton, 1923; Brower, 1958b; Dowwney & Fuller, 1961; Neck, 1973).

    1974, Frank Slansky, Energetic and Nutritional Interactions Between Larvae of the Imported Cabbage Butterfly, Pieris Rapae L., and Cruciferous Food-plants, page 241

    The most common mode of diet specialization among phytophagous insects seems to lie between the two extreme forms of phagism.

    1985, Comprehensive Insect Physiology, Biochemistry, and Pharmacology, page 476
  2. rareuncountablehuman sciencesA desire to eat that is not based on nutritional need.

    Precosmophobic phagism, or undifferentiated phagism, is phagism with no limits of space or time: the devouring mouth, as it were, unites the individual with the whole world for all time.

    1972, Samy Mokhtar, Abdel Malik, The Conquest of Cosmophobia: The Psychopathology of Civilization, page 289
    1 more example

    In the scale of awareness, scatism shares with cosmophobic phagism the cosmophobic level of awareness, although there can be no doubt that both culturally and individually cosmophobic phagism is far more important than scatism.

    1974, Canadian Psychiatric Association, Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, Canadian Psychiatric Association., page 419

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Gampish
Cite this entry
APA

phagism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phagism

MLA

“phagism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phagism. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “phagism,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phagism.

Source: phagism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.