-cola, -colas; -cole; -colent; -colid; -coline; -colous

(Latin: to inhabit; to live in, to live on, to live among; to dwell; living among, dwelling in; occurring on, occurring in)

Suffixes that refer to the location or an area of growth. Used primarily in botanical and biological terminology to indicate a plant or an organism that is characterized by a habitat or place of existence as indicated by the combining root.

The suffix -cole is derived from Latin colere, "to inhabit, to dwell, to live".

If you want to see more details about a "Source" link under any of the entries in this unit, click on it and you will be taken to the Bibliography of Habitat and Dwelling Environments unit and there you can find the book by scrolling down until you see the TITLE of the book in GREEN.

Don't confuse this -cole, -cola , "inhabit, live in, dwelling in" unit with the following cole-, coleo- (sheath, scabbard, vagina); coll-, col- (neck); collo-, coll- (glue); colo-, col- (colon, large intestine); and colon-, coln- (farm, settlement) units.

maricoline (adjective), more maricoline, most maricoline
Descriptive of species inhabiting or dwelling in the sea: Since June was interested in taking a course in oceanography, she bought a book regarding maricoline organisms existing in oceans around the world.
maricolous (adjective) (not comparable)
Relating to organisms that thrive in the sea: Such maricolous invertebrate animals like clams or squids exist successfully in many oceans.
melittocole (verb), melittocole; melittocoles; melittocoling: bees
Thriving in association with bees; such as, an organism that spends part of its life cycle in an association with bees.
melittocolous (adjective), more melittocolous, most melittocolous
Referring to the process of pollinating plants by bees.
merdicole (verb), merdicoles; merdicoled; merdicoling: dung
Living on or in dung.
merdicolous (adjective), more merdicolous, most merdicolous
mesocole (verb), mesocoles; mesocoled; mesocoling: water
To live in conditions in which there is neither an excess nor a deficiency of water.
mesocolous (adjective), more mesocolous, most mesocolous
A description of intermediate or moderate environmental conditions.
monticola (s) (noun), monticolas (pl): mountain
monticole (verb), monticoles; monticoled; monticoling
Staying in mountainous habitats.
monticolous (adjective), more monticolous, most monticolous
muscicole (verb), muscicoles; muscicoled; muscicoling: moss
To grow on or to live in mosses or moss-rich communities.
muscicolous (adjective), more muscicolous, most muscicolous
Pertaining to an association of organisms that spend part of their life cycles in the nests of ants or termites.
myrmecocole (verb), myrmecocoles; myrmecocoled; myrmecocoling: ants
Living in ant or termite nests.
myrmecocoline (adjective), more myrmecocoline, most myrmecocoline
A reference to species living in ant or termite nests.

For more details about plants and animals living together, go to this Habitats for the Living page.

The list of books or the resources that were used to compile the information for this unit are available at this Bibliography of Habitat and Dwelling Environments unit.

You may take a self-scoring quiz over some of the words in this section by clicking on this -cole, -colus quiz to check your word knowledge for this unit or even learn some of the words via this quiz.

Related life, live-word units: anima-; bio-; vita-; viva-.