What does "apocrine" mean?

Of or pertaining to an apocrine gland or to its mode of secretion, which involves the budding of portions of the secreting cells.

What is a synonym for "apocrine"?

Common synonyms include: holocrine, merocrine.

How do you pronounce "apocrine"?

Pronounced //ˈæpəˌkɹɪn//.

Apocrine

//ˈæpəˌkɹɪn// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Of or pertaining to an apocrine gland or to its mode of secretion, which involves the budding of portions of the secreting cells. not-comparable
"They observed that apocrine metaplasia often was present in breasts with other "noncancerous proliferative lesions," but they found no significant difference in the frequency of apocrine metaplasia between "cancerous and noncancerous breasts.""

Adjective

1
(of exocrine glands) producing a secretion in which part of the secreting cell is released with the secretion wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

holocrine merocrine

Antonyms

All antonyms

eccrine

Example

More examples

"They observed that apocrine metaplasia often was present in breasts with other "noncancerous proliferative lesions," but they found no significant difference in the frequency of apocrine metaplasia between "cancerous and noncancerous breasts.""

Etymology

From apo- (“away from”) + Ancient Greek κρῑ́νω (krī́nō, “to separate”).

Related phrases

apocrine gland decapitation secretion

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.