agglutination

American  

[uh-gloot-n-ey-shuhn] / əˌglut nˈeɪ ʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of uniting by glue or other tenacious substance.

2. the state of being thus united; adhesion of parts.

3. that which is united; a mass or group cemented together.

4. Immunology. the clumping of bacteria, red blood cells, or other cells, due to the introduction of an antibody.

5. Linguistics. a process of word formation in which morphemes, each having one relatively constant shape, are combined without fusion or morphophonemic change, and in which each grammatical category is typically represented by a single morpheme in the resulting word, especially such a process involving the addition of one or more affixes to a base, as in Turkish, in which ev means “house,” ev-den means “from a house,” and ev-ler-den means “from houses.”

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agglutination British  

/ əˌɡluːtɪˈneɪʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of agglutinating

2. the condition of being agglutinated; adhesion

3. a united mass or group of parts

4. chem the formation of clumps of particles in a suspension

5. biochem proteinaceous particles, such as blood cells and bacteria, that form clumps in antibody–antigen reactions

6. immunol the formation of a mass of particles, such as erythrocytes, by the action of antibodies

7. linguistics the building up of words from component morphemes in such a way that these undergo little or no change of form or meaning in the process of combination

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agglutination Scientific  

/ ə-glo̅o̅t′n-ā′shən /

1. The clumping together of biologic material, such as red blood cells or bacteria, that is suspended in liquid, usually in response to a particular antibody.

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Other Word Forms

• antiagglutination adjective
• interagglutination noun

Etymology

Origin of agglutination

First recorded in 1535–45; agglutinate + -ion

Example Sentences

By 1989, The Times reported, Davis had “reshaped Gulf & Western from a ragtag agglutination of about 100 businesses to a thriving corporation focused in entertainment, publishing and finance.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2023

The first exposure does not usually cause a reaction; however, at the second exposure, enough antibodies have built up in the blood to produce a reaction that causes agglutination and breakdown of red blood cells.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

If she subsequently becomes pregnant with a second Rh+ fetus and is not treated preventively with RhoGAM, the fetus will be at risk for an antigen-antibody reaction, including agglutination and hemolysis.

From Textbooks • Jun. 19, 2013

Navy then went flat out to become the world's champion of agglutination.

From Time Magazine Archive

Max Mueller goes further, and asserts that what is called the process of agglutination in the Turanian languages is the same as what has been named polysynthesis in America.

From The Myths of the New World A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America by Brinton, Daniel Garrison