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🔤 To join morphemes 🧲 Stuck together 🩸 To form clumps
to agglutinate

to agglutinate

9.6
To stick together and form clumps, as cells or particles
  • verb
  • /əˈɡluːtɪneɪt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : aglutinare
  • In the lab, the scientist noticed that the bacteria began to agglutinate into visible clumps.

Examples

  • Horrocks and Shaw confirmed his findings: "Zammit bought six more for experimental purposes, and on examining their blood before using them, found a certain number of them agglutinated."

    Academic text (2000)

  • Agglutination studies showed that RHDV Ast/89 agglutinated human blood of all group types (O, A, B, and AB), as described for RHDV genetic group 1 members (13).

    Academic text (2012)

  • It seemed to be agglutinating before my eyes.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Some of these Vibrio spp. can grow in thiosulfate-citrate-bile salts-sucrose agar as yellow colonies and do not agglutinate with V. cholerae O1 antiserum.

    Academic text (2012)

  • When mixed with the right solution, the red blood cells will agglutinate and form a gel-like mass.

  • Observing the reaction, she realized that the particles started to agglutinate as soon as the enzymes were added.

Synonyms

to flocculate
vsto agglutinate
  • Specialized
1 9.9

To form small clumps from tiny particles in a liquid

refers to particles or cells sticking together generally not only in liquid

Antonyms

to scatter
110 2.7

To make people or animals move quickly in different directions

to disaggregate
  • Specialized
3 7.5

To separate something into smaller parts to study it

How Clumped

to aggregate
23 5.1
to agglutinate
  • Specialized
9.6
to clump
7 4.4
to touch
∞ 1.0
to disperse
104 4.4

Surface Forms

agglutinate infinitive
agglutinated past
agglutinated past participle
agglutinating present participle
agglutinates third person singular

Morphology

agglutinate = ag + glutin + ate

The biological/medical meaning 'to stick together' is directly related to the idea of 'glue', but the Latinate combining form and prefix are not obvious to most learners.

Etymology

Agglutinate comes from Latin parts ad- 'to' and gluten 'glue', so in biology it describes cells or particles that 'glue' themselves into clumps. That's why the verb means to stick together and form visible groups.