Homeostasis
//ˌhɒmɪə(ʊ)ˈsteɪsɪs// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The ability of a system or living organism to adjust its internal environment to maintain a state of dynamic constancy; such as the ability of warm-blooded animals to maintain a stable temperature. countable, uncountable
"His most important work concentrated on the complexities of chemical neurotransmission (for which Otto Loewi received a Nobel Prize in 1936) and on “homeostasis” (a term coined by Cannon in 1926), the maintenance of steady states in the body and the physiological processes through which they are regulated."
- 2 (physiology) metabolic equilibrium actively maintained by several complex biological mechanisms that operate via the autonomic nervous system to offset disrupting changes wordnet
- 3 Such a dynamic equilibrium or balance. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"Adaptogens are used in herbal medicine for the purported stabilization of physiological processes and promotion of homeostasis."
Etymology
Coined from Ancient Greek ὅμοιος (hómoios, “similar, the same”) + -stasis by Walter Bradford Cannon, from Ancient Greek στάσις (stásis, “standing, state”).
Related phrases
More for "homeostasis"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.