host

noun

(L. hospes, hospitis: host) An organism whose body provides nourishment and shelter for a parasite (see parasitism) or a parasitoid. A definitive (or primary) host is one in which an animal parasite becomes sexually mature; an intermediate (or secondary) host is one in which the parasite passes the larval or asexual stages of its life cycle; applied, loosely, to a plant supporting an epiphyte).