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# phage

«phage» in Mova's school dictionary: **A tiny virus that attacks and kills bacteria, not people** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a phage, phages); short for bacteriophage

### meaning for a pupil

1) (science) A tiny virus that attacks and kills bacteria, not people. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phage/#m1)

2) (fragment) A word ending meaning "eater", as in "macrophage" (a white blood cell that eats germs). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phage/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science and medicine, phages look like tiny space landers; they inject their genes into bacteria. Doctors are testing phage therapy to fight bacteria that antibiotics cannot kill. The ending "-phage" means "eat" in Greek.

### examples

- A phage is a virus that infects bacteria. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phage/#x1)
- Phages look like tiny moon landers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phage/#x2)
- Scientists use phages to fight resistant bacteria. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phage/#x3)
- Phages are harmless to human cells. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phage/#x4)
- A macrophage is a white blood cell that eats germs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phage/#x5)
- There are more phages on Earth than stars in the sky, scientists estimate. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/phage/#x6)

### note

Countable. Pronounced "FAYJ". Full name: bacteriophage. Related Greek words: -phagy, sarcophagus (originally "flesh-eater"). It is a science word, not everyday English.

### Trees and pragmatics

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