What does "merocrine" mean?

Of or pertaining to certain exocrine glands that secrete without major damage to the secretory cells.

What is a synonym for "merocrine"?

Common synonyms include: apocrine, eccrine, eccrine, endocrine, glandular, holocrine.

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Adjective

1
Of or pertaining to certain exocrine glands that secrete without major damage to the secretory cells. not-comparable
"Merocrine cells have several full secretion cycles — the merocrine secretion cell does not die when it secretes into the lumen of the gland."

"Merocrine cells have several full secretion cycles — the merocrine secretion cell does not die when it secretes into the lumen of the gland."

From mero- (“partial”) + Ancient Greek κρῑ́νω (krī́nō, “to separate”).

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