The lifestyle or process of an organism feeding on other organisms or organic material rather than making its own food through photosynthesis.
From 'heterotroph' plus the suffix '-y' (denoting a condition or practice), standardized in biological usage by the 1920s.
Heterotrophy is actually the evolutionary strategy of most life on Earth—every animal, fungus, and bacteria using this strategy outnumber the photosynthetic organisms, making heterotrophs the real majority!
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