Metabolism

/mɪˈtab.ə.lɪz.əm/ name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life. countable, uncountable

    "The metabolisms of aerobic bacteria require oxygen"

  2. 2
    the organic processes (in a cell or organism) that are necessary for life wordnet
  3. 3
    The rate at which these processes occur for a given organism broadly, countable, uncountable

    "Small animals have a much higher metabolism than large animals because they lose more body heat"

  4. 4
    the marked and rapid transformation of a larva into an adult that occurs in some animals wordnet
  5. 5
    The processes that maintain any dynamic system. broadly, countable, figuratively, uncountable

    "The results of this generalized speedup of the corporate metabolism are multiple: shorter product life cycles, more leasing and renting, more frequent buying and selling, more ephemeral consumption patterns, […]"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A post-war Japanese architectural movement that fused ideas about architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth.

Synonyms

All synonyms
anabolismassimilationavatarbasal metabolismbiochemical processingbioenergetics

Example

More examples

""My metabolism is such that no matter how much I eat I don't put on weight." "Just now, this second, you've made enemies of people throughout the world.""

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μεταβολή (metabolḗ, “change”) + -ism, from μεταβάλλω (metabállō, “to change, to alter”) + -η (-ē, action noun suffix).

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