Tropism

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Tropism \Tro"pism\ (tr[=o]"p[i^]z'm), n. [Gr. troph` a turning,
     tre`pein to turn + -ism.] (Physiol.)
     Modification of the direction of growth, caused by some
     external influence, such as light; -- sometimes used for
     motion of an organism toward or away from an external
     stimulus, more properly called {taxis}.


     [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  tropism
       n : an involuntary orienting response; positive or negative
           reaction to a stimulus source

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  36 Moby Thesaurus words for "tropism":
     a thing for, affinity, aptitude, aptness, bent, bias, cast,
     conatus, conduciveness, delight, diathesis, disposition, eagerness,
     feeling for, inclination, leaning, liability, liking, penchant,
     predilection, predisposition, prejudice, probability, proclivity,
     proneness, propensity, readiness, sensitivity to, soft spot,
     susceptibility, tendency, turn, twist, warp, weakness,
     willingness