agglutinate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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to unite or cause to adhere, as with glue.
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Immunology. to clump or cause to clump, as bacteria or blood platelets.
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Linguistics. to form by agglutination.
adjective
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united by or as by glue.
verb
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to adhere or cause to adhere, as with glue
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linguistics to combine or be combined by agglutination
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(tr) to cause (bacteria, red blood cells, etc) to clump together
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of agglutinate
1535–45; < Latin agglūtinātus (past participle of agglūtināre ), equivalent to ag- ag- + glūtin- (stem of glūten glue) + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
When things get stuck or clumped together, they agglutinate. In biology, red blood cells are said to agglutinate when they adhere to each other, forming a mass of cells. There's glue at the heart of agglutinate — it comes from the Latin agglutinare, "fasten with glue." Microbiologists use this word to describe the behavior of cells and particles. Linguistics experts also use this verb: when words or sounds agglutinate, they are strung together to form more complex compound words. In English, one example is shamelessness, which agglutinates shame, less, and ness.
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:
It urges those who work in it to agglutinate and machinate.
From Economist ● Oct. 27, 2016
Thus, there was something in the serum of immune individuals that could specifically bind to and agglutinate bacteria.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
The European Cup is the great promise, the hope, the agglutinate, the objective into which all else is subsumed.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 9, 2013
This serves to agglutinate it into the form of concretions, constituting the tapioca of commerce.
Trichoptera: hairy-winged: insects with hairy primaries with many longitudinal veins and cells, covering the broader secondaries which are usually folded lengthwise; mouth mandibulate but rudimentary: head free; thorax agglutinate: metamorphosis complete.
From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by Smith, John. B.
The agglutinated heads represent “all her children,” she added — but also perhaps “her other selves.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 15, 2022
That description applies to far more than one foram… The new squatter has a stark difference from Hospitella – its test is agglutinated, or composed of small particles stuck together.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 12, 2013
Studies by pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche and the Zoological Society of London have reported no medicinal value in rhino horn, which, like fingernails, is composed of agglutinated hair and contains proteins like keratin.
From Time ● Jun. 11, 2011
Yet for millennia, these bulky lawn mowers have entranced humans with the agglutinated hair that makes up their horns.
From Time ● Jun. 11, 2011
Corrodentia: an ordinal term meaning gnawers: net-veined or wingless: mandibulate, mouth formed for gnawing; transformation incomplete; thorax incompletely agglutinated: = Psocoptera: includes Termitidae, Psocidae and Mallophaga.
From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by Smith, John. B.
There are also numerous verbal formative elements given by McCabe himself, so that Angami must clearly be included in the agglutinating order.
From Man, Past and Present by Haddon, Alfred Court
From a thousand miles around, the devils were mustering for their prey, agglutinating, in order that the meal of one might become the meal of all.
From Astounding Stories of Super-Science, November, 1930 by Various
Emery-wheels are made by consolidating the powdered mineral with an agglutinating medium like shellac or silicate of soda or vulcanized india-rubber.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 3 "Electrostatics" to "Engis" by Various
The Ober-Deutsch was fuller and fonder of agglutinating words together, although it was not so soft in its sounds.
From Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Coleridge, Henry Nelson
A clammy and agglutinating sweat then occurred over the cranium, the hair became unctuous, stuck together, and appeared distended with an adhesive matter of reddish-brown color, believed by many observers to be sanguineous.
From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)
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.
