Digestion

//daɪˈd͡ʒɛst͡ʃən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The process, in the gastrointestinal tract, by which food is converted into substances that can be used by the body. countable, uncountable

    "In the dead state all is apparently without motion. No agent within indicates design, intelligence, or foresight: there is no respiration; no digestion, circulation, or nutrition; […]"

  2. 2
    learning and coming to understand ideas and information wordnet
  3. 3
    The result of this process. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    the organic process by which food is converted into substances that can be absorbed into the body wordnet
  5. 5
    The ability to use this process. countable, uncountable
Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    the process of decomposing organic matter (as in sewage) by bacteria or by chemical action or heat wordnet
  2. 7
    The processing of decay in organic matter assisted by microorganisms. countable, uncountable
  3. 8
    The assimilation and understanding of ideas. countable, uncountable
  4. 9
    Generation of pus; suppuration. archaic, countable, uncountable
  5. 10
    Dissolution of a sample into a solution by means of adding acid and heat. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
ablationabsorbencyabsorbentabsorptionadsorbentadsorption

Example

More examples

"A natural diet is suitable for human digestion."

Etymology

From Old French digestion. Partly displaced native Old English melting (“melting, digestion”).

Related phrases

mechanical digestiongastrointestinal tract

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