noun

• An organism deriving its nutritional requirements from complex organic substances.

  Compare with autotroph

  ‘This photosynthetic control of cell-cycle progression is similar to the nutritional control of heterotrophs.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Classified by the source of their energy, bacteria fall into two categories: heterotrophs and autotrophs.’
  • ‘Animals, on the other hand, are heterotrophs, life forms that depend on the consumption of plants, animals or both in order to meet their bioenergetic requirements.’
  • ‘Unlike plants, animals are heterotrophs which means they are unable to live on inorganic nutrients alone.’
  • ‘The result, especially when heterotrophs are preyed upon by other heterotrophs, is a food chain.’