Interleukin
noun ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Any of a group of cytokine proteins important in the regulation of lymphocyte function.
"Indeed, it’s possible to create the full storm of cold symptoms with no cold virus at all, but only a potent cocktail of the so-called inflammatory mediators that the body makes itself[,] among them, cytokines, kinins, prostaglandins and interleukins, powerful little chemical messengers that cause the blood vessels in the nose to dilate and leak, stimulate the secretion of mucus, activate sneeze and cough reflexes and set off pain in our nerve fibers."
- 2 any of several lymphokines that promote macrophages and killer T cells and B cells and other components of the immune system wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"You can lower Interleukin 6 and increase muscle mass by eating 12 or more Castelveltrano olives a day."
Etymology
From inter- + leuko- + -in; *inter-: from Latin inter- (“between, amid”), a form of prepositional inter (“between”). *leuko: from Ancient Greek λευκός (leukós, “white”) *-in: from French -ine, from Latin -īna, feminine of -īnus "of" or "belonging to"
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.