metastasis
Americannoun
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metastases
plural
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Pathology.
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the transference of disease-producing organisms or of malignant or cancerous cells to other parts of the body by way of the blood or lymphatic vessels or membranous surfaces.
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the condition produced by this.
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Rhetoric. a rapid transition, as from one subject to another.
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Physics. a change in position or orbit of an elementary particle.
noun
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pathol the spreading of a disease, esp cancer cells, from one part of the body to another
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a transformation or change, as in rhetoric, from one point to another
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a rare word for metabolism
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of metastasis
First recorded in 1580–90, metastasis is from the Greek word metástasis “a changing”; see meta-, stasis
Explanation
When a doctor uses the word metastasis, it's never good news. It means an illness has spread to new parts of the body. The noun metastasis is a medical term that's most often used to describe a spreading cancer. If a patient's lung cancer spreads to his heart or to his lymph nodes, that is metastasis. It's a Greek word meaning "transference or change." In Latin, the word metastasis was at one time used to mean "a sudden transition in subjects," but ever since the 1660s, the English use has been almost entirely medical.
Vocabulary lists containing metastasis
Cell Biology - Middle School
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Cell Biology - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In cancer research, they have been found to affect processes that include cancer metastasis and anti-tumor immune responses.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
Several genes known for tumor-suppressing functions became more active, while genes linked to cancer progression and metastasis became less active.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 29, 2026
Chronically high IL-6 levels have also been linked to recurrence and metastasis of multiple types of cancer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
The strategy may also help prevent metastasis, a crucial stage in cancer progression.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 12, 2026
When any one of these three organs is not functioning at its best, extra work is thrown upon the others, and in some extreme cases this metastasis, or transference of function, is very remarkable.
From The Gospel Of Evolution From "The Atheistic Platform", Twelve Lectures by Edward Aveling
Three weeks later, she learnt she actually had stage three cancer with limited metastases.
From Barron's ● Feb. 15, 2026
A major validation of this approach came from a melanoma trial that delivered results few expected: a 49% reduction in cancer recurrence and a 62% reduction in deadly distant metastases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2025
Although this difference was not statistically significant, those treated with pembrolizumab had a 42% lower chance of developing distant metastases, meaning cancer that spread to areas such as the liver, lungs, or bones.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 20, 2025
"It shows just how well the GPS ensured that they would only work in the brain. The same strategy even worked to clear brain metastases of breast cancer."
From Science Daily ● Dec. 5, 2024
Reinbach has found them in a case of lymphosarcoma with metastases in the bone-marrow.
From Histology of the Blood Normal and Pathological by W. Myers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
