Hyperplasia

//ˌhaɪ.pɚˈpleɪ.ʒə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An increase in the size of a tissue or organ due to increased number of cells. countable, uncountable

    "But we can no longer regard the mere fact of these diffuse condensations of the lung becoming yellow and caseous as an evidence of their tuberculous nature, especially since the pathological anatomists, and among them Virchow, have shown that formations of the most different kind, having not the slightest connection with tubercule— as, for example, old cancerous masses, lymphatic glands swollen by a hyperplasia of cells, hæmorrhagical infarctions, abscesses, &c.— undergo exactly the same caseous transformation."

  2. 2
    abnormal increase in number of cells wordnet

Example

More examples

"But we can no longer regard the mere fact of these diffuse condensations of the lung becoming yellow and caseous as an evidence of their tuberculous nature, especially since the pathological anatomists, and among them Virchow, have shown that formations of the most different kind, having not the slightest connection with tubercule— as, for example, old cancerous masses, lymphatic glands swollen by a hyperplasia of cells, hæmorrhagical infarctions, abscesses, &c.— undergo exactly the same caseous transformation."

Etymology

From hyper- + -plasia.

Related phrases

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