bladder

American  

[blad-er] / ˈblæd ər /

noun

• bladders
  plural

1. Anatomy, Zoology.

   1. a membranous sac or organ serving as a receptacle for a fluid or air.

   2. urinary bladder.

2. Pathology. a vesicle, blister, cyst, etc., filled with fluid or air.

3. Botany. an air-filled sac or float, as in certain seaweeds.

4. something resembling a bladder, as the inflatable lining of a football or basketball.

5. an air-filled sac, usually made to resemble a club, used for beatings in low comedy, vaudeville, or the like.

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bladder British  

/ ˈblædə /

noun

1. anatomy a distensible membranous sac, usually containing liquid or gas, esp the urinary bladder

2. an inflatable part of something

3. a blister, cyst, vesicle, etc, usually filled with fluid

4. a hollow vesicular or saclike part or organ in certain plants, such as the bladderwort or bladderwrack

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bladder Scientific  

/ blăd′ər /

1. A sac-shaped muscular organ that stores the urine secreted by the kidneys, found in all vertebrates except birds and the monotremes. In mammals, urine is carried from the kidneys to the bladder by the ureters and is later discharged from the body through the urethra.

2. An air bladder.

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bladder Cultural  

1. A stretchable saclike structure in the body that holds fluids. The term is used most often to refer to the urinary bladder, which is part of the excretory system. Another kind of bladder is the gallbladder.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• bladderless
  adjective
• bladderlike
  adjective
• bladdery
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• bladders
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bladder

before 900; Middle English; Old English blǣddre, blǣdre bladder, blister, pimple; cognate with Old Norse blāthra, dialectal Dutch bladder, German Blatter; akin to blow ²

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bladder bladders

Kidney cancer has fewer mutations to target, while bladder cancer has a more suppressive tumor environment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

Not all cancers do, and that implies the vaccine’s success in melanoma may not translate to other types of cancer it’s being tested in, such as renal-cell carcinoma and bladder cancer.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026

Moderna and Merck are also working on vaccines for non-small cell lung, bladder, kidney, pancreatic and gastric cancers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

According to the Guinness World Records, the largest bladder stone was removed from a patient in Brazil in 2003.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

Singing softly in Eskimo, she told him she had no bladder for his spirit to dwell in, but that she had his totem.

From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George

U.S. bases and installations throughout the Indo-Pacific—such as in Japan, the Philippines and Guam—are in desperate need of hardened aircraft shelters, air defenses, reinforced munitions storage bunkers and fuel bladders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026

We feel the pressure of sore backs and full bladders.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2025

In Germany emerged so-called "Herod games" in which people would reportedly stage mock attacks on churches and assail bystanders with inflated animal bladders to ridicule the cruel absurdity of the Judean king.

From Salon ● Dec. 23, 2024

Utricularia vulgaris, also known as a bladderwort, is a carnivorous plant that traps its prey using specialized hollow, water filled trap bladders.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2024

Dancers danced; musicians played queer tunes with bells and squeaks and bladders; singers sang ancient love songs in the incomprehensible tongue of Old Ghis.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin