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Glite Dictionary
blood corpuscle

blood corpuscle

4.3
A small cell in blood that carries oxygen, fights infection, or helps stop bleeding
  • noun
  • /blʌd ˈkɔrpəsəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : célula sanguínea
  • In a healthy person, blood corpuscles play a crucial role in the immune response.

Examples

  • Leibniz is asserting that we observe that organs in a body, e.g., the liver or the heart, are machines; blood corpuscles in these organs are again machines; the cells that make up the corpuscles are yet again machines; even further, the molecules that make up the cells are machines, and so on.

    Academic text (1998)

  • Red blood cells, also known as blood corpuscles, transport oxygen throughout the body.

  • When the doctor examined the sample, she counted the number of blood corpuscles present.

Synonyms

blood cell
vsblood corpuscle
  • Specialized
52 2.5

A cell in the blood that carries oxygen or fights infection

refers to the same kinds of cells but uses a different traditional name
corpuscle
vsblood corpuscle
  • Specialized
1 8.3

A cell in the blood such as a red or white blood cell

refers specifically to cells found in blood rather than to any small cell

Surface Forms

blood corpuscle singular
blood corpuscles plural

Morphology

blood + corpuscle

The meaning is directly compositional: 'blood' (the bodily fluid) + 'corpuscle' (a small cellular body) yields a cellular element of blood (i.e., a blood cell). This noun-noun combination follows standard English formation and has close equivalents in many languages, so a learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Blood corpuscle is a name from early scientists who looked at tiny things in the blood and used the word corpuscle, from an old word meaning 'small body', for each tiny part. So the phrase pictures 'small bodies' in the blood and today it means 'cells found in the blood'.