superorganism

See also: super organism

English

Alternative forms

• super organism

Etymology

super- +‎ organism.

Noun

superorganism (plural superorganisms)

1. (biology) A social colony of individuals who, through division of labour, effective communication and self-organization, form a highly connected community that functions as if it were a single organism.
   • 1991, James Lovelock, Healing Gaia, New York: Harmony Books, →ISBN, page 64:

     A superorganism is an ensemble of living and non-living matter, which acts as a single self-regulating system. […] Gaia is the largest and most complex superorganism we know.

   • 1993, Gregory Stock, Metaman: the Merging of Humans and Machines Into a Global Superorganism, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 43:

     To grasp why Metaman—our strange amalgam of concrete, humans, computer chips, and various plants and animals—is a superorganism rather than merely an elaborate “social grouping” of humans, look at another, far simpler grouping of organisms—a termite colony.

Usage notes

• The less common noun supraorganism is mostly synonymous.

Translations

social colony

• Catalan: superorganisme m
• Danish: superorganisme c
• French: superorganisme (fr) m
• German: Superorganismus m
• Spanish: superorganismo m
• Swedish: superorganism

Further reading

• superorganism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia