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:
The technology is a therapeutic vaccine, meaning it can help prevent recurrence and metastasis, but it can’t keep someone from getting melanoma in the first place.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
On Wednesday the company said that a large randomized trial met its goal of preventing cancer recurrence and metastasis, though it didn’t publish the data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
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
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
He speaks of a metastasis to the kidneys and bladder being peculiarly favorable in empyema.
From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various
Three weeks later, she learnt she actually had stage three cancer with limited metastases.
From Barron's ● Feb. 15, 2026
These monocytes normally help cancer cells evade immune defenses and support the growth of metastases.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 23, 2026
Even in mice with advanced disease and existing metastases, the antibody improved the balance between M1 and M2 macrophages.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 22, 2026
After the mice were given cancer cells that formed lung metastases, treatment with the AbLec led to fewer lung metastases than treatment with trastuzumab alone.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 23, 2025
Besides these he describes a case of lymphosarcoma of the neck with metastases in the bone-marrow, in which an unexampled increase of the white blood corpuscles, and especially of the eosinophil cells was found.
From Histology of the Blood Normal and Pathological by W. Myers
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