Megakaryocyte
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A large cell, found in bone marrow, responsible for the production of platelets.
"These have been described as giant cells with budding nuclei (Bizzozero [2]); but it seems to me that they are worthy of a more distinctive name. I shall speak of them hereafter as megakaryocytes, or large nucleated giant cells, while the first class might be named polykaryocytes, or multinucleated giant cells."
- 2 a large bone marrow cell; regarded as the source of blood platelets wordnet
Example
More examples"These have been described as giant cells with budding nuclei (Bizzozero [2]); but it seems to me that they are worthy of a more distinctive name. I shall speak of them hereafter as megakaryocytes, or large nucleated giant cells, while the first class might be named polykaryocytes, or multinucleated giant cells."
Etymology
1890, from mega- + karyocyte
Related phrases
More for "megakaryocyte"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.