cryonics
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cryonics
1965–70, cryo- + -nics, on the model of bionics, electronics, etc.
Explanation
Cryonics is the practice of freezing a dead body in the hope that future scientific research will make it possible to bring the person back to life one day. Many scientists are skeptical about cryonics. While there are some people who believe strongly that cryonics is a scientific way to preserve a human body, usually within minutes after the person's heart has stopped beating, mainstream scientists are generally doubtful that technology will ever allow for the defrosting and reanimating of these frozen bodies. Currently, there are a few hundred bodies that have been frozen through cryonics. The Greek root of cryonics is kryos, "icy cold."
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.
After Zhan Wenlian was given months to live by doctors, Gui Junmin decided to use cryonics - which is scientifically unproven - to preserve her body once she died.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2025
She chronicles the gallows humor of gravediggers who buried their own mothers and the tempered optimism of cryonics operators tasked with keeping clients’ bodies frozen until science can bring them back to life.
From New York Times ● Aug. 16, 2022
"Epstein was also obsessed with cryonics, the transhumanist philosophy whose followers believe that people can be replicated or brought back to life after they are frozen," Brown writes.
From Salon ● Dec. 8, 2021
They belonged to people who agreed—and paid money—to be frozen after death in the hope of being revived in the future, a practice called cryonics.
From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2021
Realistically speaking, the belief in an afterlife and the dedication to cryonics are less far apart than they seem at first glance.
From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Nadin, Mihai
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.
