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• Elisa
  Elisa

  noun

  a female given name, form of Elizabeth.
• ELISA
  ELISA

  noun

  a sensitive diagnostic test for past or current exposure to an infectious agent, as the AIDS virus: a sample of blood is added to proteins from the agent, and any antibodies that combine with the proteins, indicating a history of infection, are detected by adding a test antibody linked to an enzyme that causes a color change.

Elisa

¹ American  

[ih-lis-uh, e-lee-suh] / ɪˈlɪs ə, ɛˈli sə /

Also Elisia

noun

1. a female given name, form of Elizabeth.

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ELISA ² American  

[ih-lahy-zuh, -suh] / ɪˈlaɪ zə, -sə /

noun

1. Medicine/Medical. a sensitive diagnostic test for past or current exposure to an infectious agent, as the AIDS virus: a sample of blood is added to proteins from the agent, and any antibodies that combine with the proteins, indicating a history of infection, are detected by adding a test antibody linked to an enzyme that causes a color change.

2. Biology, Medicine/Medical. any similar test using proteins as a probe for the identification of antibodies or antigens.

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ELISA British  

/ ɪˈlaɪzə /

acronym

1. enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay: an immunological technique for accurately measuring the amount of a substance, for example in a blood sample

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Etymology

Origin of ELISA

e(nzyme-)l(inked) i(mmuno)s(orbent) a(ssay)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Elisa ELISA

"I had no idea that I could ever go on tour for cake," laughs Cake Picnic founder Elisa Sunga, part-time hobby baker and full-time Google employee specialising in AI.

From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2026

I’m traveling, and I travel light, so I didn’t bring many books with me, but I am reading “Malacría,” the first novel by Mexican poet Elisa Díaz Castelo, and I’m liking it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2026

To detect plastic particles inside the insects, Devlin worked with Elisa Bergami, a microplastics specialist at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, and imaging expert Giovanni Birarda at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 16, 2026

On New Year’s Eve the Finnish telecommunications company Elisa reported damage to a data cable that runs between Helsinki and Tallinn, Estonia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 5, 2026

It was called a rapid Elisa test, and it was sensitive and easy to perform.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

Common tests like the ELISA, on which Hallisey based her project, rely on mixtures of protein and water to trigger the chemical reactions that lead to positive or negative results.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 23, 2015

The boys based their idea off a common testing method that’s been in use for decades, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, or ELISA, reported the BBC.

From Forbes ● Jun. 25, 2015

This process takes a few minutes at home, versus the two hours it would typically take a laboratory to run a comparable test using ELISA, Khattak said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 18, 2014

It is a very good test, but there are issues with false positive results with one form called the HerpesSelect ELISA.

From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2010

The annual cost of all this testing, including the ELISA, confirmation tests and counseling, would probably be counted in the billions.

From Time Magazine Archive