Apheresis
/əˈfɪəɹɪsɪs/ noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Elision, suppression, or complete loss of a letter or sound (syllable) from the beginning of a word, such as the development of special from especial. Canada, US, countable, uncountable
- 2 a procedure in which blood is drawn and separated into its components by dialysis; some are retained and the rest are returned to the donor by transfusion wordnet
- 3 The removal of blood from a patient, and the removal of certain components (such as platelets) from that blood, followed by the transfusion of the filtered blood back to the donor (patient). Canada, US, countable, specific, uncountable
- 4 (linguistics) omission at the beginning of a word as in ‘coon’ for ‘raccoon’ or ‘till’ for ‘until’ wordnet
- 5 Extirpation or extraction of a superfluity (especially a pathological one) from the body, especially blood. Canada, US, countable, general, obsolete, uncountable
Synonyms
All synonymsAntonyms
All antonymsEtymology
From Latin aphaeresis, from Ancient Greek ἀφαίρεσις (aphaíresis, “a taking away”), from ἀφαιρέω (aphairéō) (from ἀφ- (aph-), variant of ἀπό (apó, “off, away from”) before an aspirated vowel) + αἱρέω (hairéō, “to take; to snatch”)) + -σις (-sis, suffix forming nouns of action); the grammatical sense developed in Latin.