kinesis

[ ki-nee-sis, kahy- ]

nounPhysiology.
  1. the movement of an organism in response to a stimulus, as light.

Origin of kinesis

1
1900–05; <Greek kī́nēsis movement, equivalent to kīnē-, verbid stem of kīneîn to move + -sis-sis

Other definitions for -kinesis (2 of 2)

-kinesis

  1. a combining form with the general sense “movement, activity,” used in the formation of compound words, often with the particular senses “reaction to a stimulus” (photokinesis), “movement without an apparent physical cause” (telekinesis), “activity within a cell” (karyokinesis).

Origin of -kinesis

2
<Greek -kīnēsis;see kinesis

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use kinesis in a sentence

  • What figurations, what formulas, could describe the inexhaustible kinesis of those years?

    The Svengali of Pop Art | Annie Cohen-Solal | May 13, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Joyce says something of the sort very differently, he is full of technical scholastic terms: "stasis, kinesis," etc.

    Instigations | Ezra Pound
  • And the old word kinesis will be correctly given as iesis in corresponding modern letters.

    Cratylus | Plato

British Dictionary definitions for kinesis

kinesis

/ (kɪˈniːsɪs, kaɪ-) /


noun
  1. biology the nondirectional movement of an organism or cell in response to a stimulus, the rate of movement being dependent on the strength of the stimulus

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012