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Medical Term:


Pronunciation: trip'o-mas'ti-got

Definition: Term to replace the older term, “trypanosome stage,” which was often confused with the flagellate genus Trypanosoma. It denotes the stage (ineffective stage for South American trypanosomiasis and African trypanosomiasis, and the only stage found in humans in the latter illness) in which the flagellum arises from a posteriorly located kinetoplast and emerges from the side of the body, with an undulating membrane running along the length of the body.

[G. trypanon, auger, + mastix, whip]
