diastole

[ dahy-as-tl-ee, -tl-ee ]

noun
  1. Physiology. the normal rhythmical dilatation of the heart during which the chambers are filling with blood.: Compare systole (def. 1).

  2. Prosody. the lengthening of a syllable regularly short, especially before a pause or at the ictus.

Origin of diastole

1
1570–80; <Late Latin diastolē<Greek diastolḗ a putting asunder, dilation, lengthening; compare diastéllein to set apart, equivalent to dia-dia- + stéllein to put, place

Words Nearby diastole

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use diastole in a sentence

  • The ding of her husband's cash register and the click of her dangle bag mark the systole and diastole of married life.

    Bizarre | Lawton Mackall
  • The great secular heart is now in its diastole, or relaxation.

    John Greenleaf Whittier | W. Sloane Kennedy
  • Systole and diastole, the contraction and dilation of the heart and arteries.

    Essays | Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Their stomachs are like sackbuts, with systole and diastole;128 and thus they contract and expand them in a wonderful manner.

  • That the intrinsic motion of the heart is the systole, and not the diastole, as previously imagined.

    Fathers of Biology | Charles McRae

British Dictionary definitions for diastole

diastole

/ (daɪˈæstəlɪ) /


noun
  1. the dilatation of the chambers of the heart that follows each contraction, during which they refill with blood: Compare systole

Origin of diastole

1
C16: via Late Latin from Greek: an expansion, from diastellein to expand, from dia- + stellein to place, bring together, make ready

Derived forms of diastole

  • diastolic (ˌdaɪəˈstɒlɪk), adjective

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

Scientific definitions for diastole

diastole

[ dī-ăstə-lē ]


  1. The period during the normal beating of the heart in which the chambers of the heart dilate and fill with blood. Diastole of the atria occurs before diastole of the ventricles. Compare systole.

Other words from diastole

  • diastolic adjective (dī′ə-stŏlĭk)

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