What does "venipuncture" mean?

The puncture of a vein, usually to draw a blood sample, collect a blood donation, or insert an intravenous line.

What is a synonym for "venipuncture"?

Common synonyms include: blood draw, phlebotomy, phlebotomy, venesection, venesection.

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The puncture of a vein, usually to draw a blood sample, collect a blood donation, or insert an intravenous line. countable, uncountable
2
(medicine) puncture of a vein through the skin in order to withdraw blood for analysis or to start an intravenous drip or to inject medication or a radiopaque dye wordnet

Verb

1
To puncture a vein in order to collect blood; to perform a venipuncture. transitive

From ven- + puncture, equivalent to veno- + puncture but with -i- as interconsonantal (versus -o-).

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