What does "opsonin" mean?

Any chemical produced by the body, including antibodies and complement proteins, that causes a pathogen to be more susceptible to phagocytosis.

What is a synonym for "opsonin"?

Common synonyms include: antibody, antigen, blood, blood bank, bloodmobile, bloodstream.

//ˈɒpsənɪn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any chemical produced by the body, including antibodies and complement proteins, that causes a pathogen to be more susceptible to phagocytosis.
2
an antibody in blood serum that attaches to invading microorganisms and other antigens to make them more susceptible to the action of phagocytes wordnet

From Ancient Greek ὀψωνέω (opsōnéō, “to purchase provisions, to buy victuals, to cater”) + -in.

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