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
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 John. B. Smith
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 John. B. Smith
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
The costal and visceral layers may be agglutinated by old adhesions, but are more commonly united together by recently formed lymph.
From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various
Gubbins, more especially for mixing emery with agglutinating material for making emery wheels; and a machine is at work on this material in the manufactory of the Standard Emery Wheel Company, Greek Street, Soho.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 315, January 14, 1882 by Various
But no admixture, except of Chinese literary terms, is seen in the Manchu language, which, like Mongolic, is a typical member of the agglutinating Ural-Altaic family.
From Man, Past and Present by Alfred Court Haddon
The Tasmanians spoke a fairly copious agglutinating language, well marked as to parts of speech, syntax and inflexion.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 2 "Anjar" to "Apollo" by Various
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 J. W. H. (John William Henry) Eyre
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 Henry Nelson Coleridge
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.
