John Updike 
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In hydrotropism, a plant's roots grow in the direction of increasing moisture, hoping to obtain water. In phototropism, a plant (or fungus) moves toward light, usually the sun—perhaps because, in the colder climates where such plants are usually found, concentrating the sun's warmth within the sun-seeking flower can create a warm and inviting environment for the insects that fertilize it. In thigmotropism, the organism moves in response to being touched; most climbing plants, for example, put out tiny tendrils that feel around for something solid and then attach themselves or curl around it. When microbiologists talk about tropism, however, they're often referring instead to the way a virus will seek out a particular type of cell to infect. And when intellectuals use the word, they usually mean a tendency shown by a person or group which they themselves might not even be aware of.
Examples of tropism in a Sentence
Emma Worden-Sapper, The Conversation, 16 Mar. 2023
Motive is tropism [seeking nutrients or energy] and virulence [ability to multiply and cause disease].
—Grant Delin, Discover Magazine, 11 May 2012
The music of Bizet and Gounod partakes of this tropism toward the elegant and pleasing.
—Janet Malcolm, The New Yorker, 14 July 2022
Is this a late-life aberration, or can the tropism be traced to a deeper angst that was missed in its time?
—The New Yorker, 18 Apr. 2022
In one way, the press conferences are a logical continuation of Trump’s tropism toward spectacle.
—Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 24 Apr. 2020
Now, as with so much else, Trumpism is changing that tropism in unpredictable ways.
—Bill McKibben, New Republic, 6 July 2017
Dictionary Entries Near tropism
Cite this Entry
“Tropism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tropism. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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tropism
noun
Medical Definition
tropism
noun
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