Why are viruses not classified living?

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Solution

Viruses:
Viruses are microscopic, acellular organisms that are not considered living or not living.
In the surrounding environment, the viruses are considered dead as they do not possess any characteristics of a cell.
But, inside the host cell, the viruses use the machinery of the host and perform all vital functions such as reproduction.
Viruses are not considered living due to the fact that they do not showcase all the characteristics that are associated with life.

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Similar questions

A virus is considered as a living organism and an obligate parasite when inside a host cell. But virus is not classified along with bacteria or fungi. What are the characters of virus that are similar to non-living objects?

Why are living organisms classified?

Q. Why are viruses considered to be non-living?

Choose the correct option.

Assertion: Viruses are classified as living organism.

Reason: They have very simple, cellular structure and cannot exist independently.

Why are viruses not classified into one of the three domains?

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