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Glite Dictionary
🦠 To eat cells 🧲 To absorb fully
to phagocytize

to phagocytize

9.9
To eat and break down tiny particles or bacteria inside the body, usually by white blood cells
  • verb
  • /ˌfæɡəˈsɪtaɪz/
  • Specialized
translation icon : fagocitar
  • In the lab, researchers observed how the white blood cells phagocytize foreign particles during the immune response.

Examples

  • When inhaled pathogens are not cleared in the upper airway, they enter the alveolar space, where they are phagocytized and cleared by AMs.

    Academic text (2016)

  • The immune cells can phagocytize bacteria that invade the body, helping to prevent infection.

  • Certain types of bacteria can evade the immune system by preventing phagocytize, allowing them to survive longer in the body.

Synonyms

to phagocytose
vsto phagocytize
  • UK
9.9

Certain body cells surround and eat germs or dead cells

has identical meaning but differs as an alternate verb form or spelling

Surface Forms

phagocytize infinitive
phagocytized past
phagocytized past participle
phagocytizing present participle
phagocytizes third person singular

Morphology

phagocytize = phagocyte (transparent) = phagocyte + ize

The verb is a straightforward verb-forming derivation from the noun 'phagocyte' with the productive suffix '-ize', so the meaning is predictable from the base.

Etymology

Phagocytize comes from Greek phagein 'to eat' and kytos 'cell'. So it literally means a cell 'eating' something, which is why we use it for immune cells that take in and digest bacteria.