[
US
/ˈfækəɫˌteɪtɪv/
]
ADJECTIVE
-
able to exist under more than one set of conditions
a facultative parasite can exist as a parasite or a saprophyte -
not compulsory
elective surgery
an elective course of study - of or relating to the mental faculties
-
granting a privilege or permission or power to do or not do something
a facultative enactment
How To Use facultative In A Sentence
- To date, no physiological mechanism for facultative sex ratio adjustment in birds has been identified.
- This paucity of experimental data makes it difficult to identify the ecological conditions that favor the evolution of the facultative response and of the particular environmental cues that may trigger it.
- These bacteria are all facultative aerobes, meaning that they are oxygen tolerant.
- Apparently facultatively bipedal, with a toothless bird-like skull sporting large orbits, dinosaur-like cervical vertebrae possessing true pneumatic foramina, and reduced gracile forelimbs and a theropod-like pelvis, Effigia is strikingly like ornithomimosaurs (ostrich dinosaurs) in several details, mostly those concerning the skull and cervical vertebrae. Archive 2006-01-01
- Many species of Chlamydomonas are facultative auxotrophs, capable of utilizing acetate as their sole carbon and energy source.
- I don't know if it's more to do with me (that is, if I express emotion differently in one language more than the other, that is, if English is my critical/facultative language and Spanish my emotional language) or the fact of Spanish being one of those languages with a formal (usted) and informal (tu) second person. Breakfast in Bed
- Rhococcus equi, a gram-positive bacterium, is a facultative intracellular coccobacillus that causes bronchopneumonia in foals aged 1 to 6 months. PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles
- I thought also that he should have defined such terms as autosome, metastasis, meiosis, and maybe even facultative as it is used in biology. Evolution for Everyone: A Review - The Panda's Thumb
- Obvious growth in the closed branch as well as in the bulb or in the inverted gas tube as well as in the bulk of the medium will indicate that it is a facultative anaerobe; whilst growth only occurring in the bulb or in the closed branch shows that it is an obligate aerobe or anaerobe respectively. The Elements of Bacteriological Technique A Laboratory Guide for Medical, Dental, and Technical Students. Second Edition Rewritten and Enlarged.
- Facultative slave-making ants, like those in the sanguinea complex, represent an intermediate parasitic group, between freeliving species on the one hand, and obligatory dulotic species on the other.
