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The combining form -phagia is used like a suffix meaning “eating” or “devouring” the thing specified by the first part of the word. It is used in some scientific and other technical terms, especially in biology.

The form -phagia ultimately comes from the Greek ��󲹲���î��, meaning “to eat, devour.” This Greek root also helps form the word esophagus. Discover the connection at our entry for the word. The word phage, referring to a bacteriophage, is a shortened or independent use of the combining form -phage.

The form -phagia is a variant of -phagy, as in cytophagy.

Want to know more? Read our 51�Թ�s That Use –phagy article.

Closely related to -phagy are -phage and -phagous. A corresponding form of -phagy combined to the beginning of words is phago-. Learn more about their specific applications at our 51�Թ�s That Use articles for the forms.

One example of a term that features the combining form -phagia is coprophagia, “eating dung,” as certain beetles do.

Copro- is a combining form that means “dung.” The second part of the word, -phagia, means “eating,” as we’ve seen. Coprophagia, then, literally translates to “dung-eating.”

What are some words that use the combining form -phagia?

• aerophagia
• autophagia
• geophagia
• monophagia
• onychophagia
• polyphagia
• xerophagia (using the equivalent form of -phagy in Greek)

What are some other forms that -phagia may be commonly confused with?

• –facient
• -gamy
• -gnathous
• -phasia
• -phile
• -phobia

The combining form onycho- means “fingernail” or “toenail.” With this in mind, onychophagia is a term used in psychiatry for what nervous behavior?