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
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.
Lepidoptera: scale-winged: an order of insects with spirally coiled haustellate mouth structures; head free; thorax agglutinate; transformations complete four scale-covered wings.
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
Yet for millennia, these bulky lawn mowers have entranced humans with the agglutinated hair that makes up their horns.
From Time ● Jun. 11, 2011
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
Thus we find occasionally that shingle and sand have been agglutinated firmly together by a ferruginous or siliceous cement, or that lime in solution has been introduced, so as to bind together materials previously incoherent.
From Principles of Geology or, The Modern Changes of the Earth and its Inhabitants Considered as Illustrative of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir
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
There may be a mucopurulent discharge, which may be slight or profuse in quantity, agglutinating the hairs of the tail.
From Special Report on Diseases of the Horse by Michener, Charles 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
Speech, almost everywhere in the agglutinating state, generally with suffixes.
From Man, Past and Present by Haddon, Alfred Court
Confirm these results by testing the organisms isolated against specific agglutinating sera obtained from experimentally inoculated animals.
From The Elements of Bacteriological Technique A Laboratory Guide for Medical, Dental, and Technical Students. Second Edition Rewritten and Enlarged. by Eyre, J. W. H. (John William Henry)
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.
