Capillary

//kəˈpɪl.ə.ɹi// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of the small blood vessels (from 5 to 10 micrometres/micrometers (μm) in diameter) that connect arteries to veins (They are the smallest blood vessels in the body: they convey blood between the arterioles and venules).
  2. 2
    a tube of small internal diameter; holds liquid by capillary action wordnet
  3. 3
    A tube or channel having a very small internal diameter, through which liquid can rise or be drawn by capillary action.
  4. 4
    any of the minute blood vessels connecting arterioles with venules wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Resembling or pertaining to hair, especially in slenderness or fineness.
  2. 2
    Of or pertaining to a narrow tube.
  3. 3
    Of, relating to, or caused by surface tension.
  4. 4
    Of or relating to capillaries in the body or to capillary action.
Adjective
  1. 1
    long and slender with a very small internal diameter wordnet
  2. 2
    of or relating to hair wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
hairlikeaortaarterialarteriolearteryblood vessel

Example

More examples

"Incidentally, that the gills of fish are bright red is because there are many 'capillary vessels' collected there, the same as for lungs."

Etymology

From Latin capillāris (“pertaining to the hair”), from capillus (“the hair, properly of the head”), from caput (“head”).

Related phrases

capillary actioncapillary bedcapillary refillcapillary waveperitubular capillaryblood vesselcirculatory systemsurface tension

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