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# paramecium

«paramecium» in Mova's school dictionary: **a tiny living thing made of just one cell, shaped like a…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a paramecium, paramecia or parameciums)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A paramecium is a tiny living thing made of just one cell, shaped like a slipper, that lives in ponds and fresh water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/paramecium/#m1)

2) It moves by beating thousands of tiny hairs called cilia and can only be seen with a microscope. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/paramecium/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons it is a classic example of a single-celled organism (a protist) that pupils look at under a microscope; it eats bacteria and moves, so it shows that one cell can do everything needed to live. Phrases: look at a paramecium, a drop of pond water, single-celled organism.

### examples

- We saw a paramecium in a drop of pond water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/paramecium/#x1)
- A paramecium is made of just one cell. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/paramecium/#x2)
- The paramecium swam fast using its tiny hairs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/paramecium/#x3)
- You need a microscope to see a paramecium. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/paramecium/#x4)
- The teacher drew a paramecium shaped like a slipper. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/paramecium/#x5)
- A paramecium eats bacteria. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/paramecium/#x6)
- Many paramecia were moving on the slide. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/paramecium/#x7)

### note

Countable; scientific plural «paramecia», everyday plural «parameciums» is also seen. Say par-uh-MEE-see-um. It is not an animal or a plant; it is a protist. The tiny hairs are «cilia».

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «paramecium» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/paramecium/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.