metastasis
Americannoun
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metastases
plural
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Pathology.
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the transference of disease-producing organisms or of malignant or cancerous cells to other parts of the body by way of the blood or lymphatic vessels or membranous surfaces.
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the condition produced by this.
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Rhetoric. a rapid transition, as from one subject to another.
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Physics. a change in position or orbit of an elementary particle.
noun
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pathol the spreading of a disease, esp cancer cells, from one part of the body to another
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a transformation or change, as in rhetoric, from one point to another
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a rare word for metabolism
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of metastasis
First recorded in 1580–90, metastasis is from the Greek word metástasis “a changing”; see meta-, stasis
Explanation
When a doctor uses the word metastasis, it's never good news. It means an illness has spread to new parts of the body. The noun metastasis is a medical term that's most often used to describe a spreading cancer. If a patient's lung cancer spreads to his heart or to his lymph nodes, that is metastasis. It's a Greek word meaning "transference or change." In Latin, the word metastasis was at one time used to mean "a sudden transition in subjects," but ever since the 1660s, the English use has been almost entirely medical.
Vocabulary lists containing metastasis
Cell Biology - Middle School
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Cell Biology - High School
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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:
The technology is a therapeutic vaccine, meaning it can help prevent recurrence and metastasis, but it can’t keep someone from getting melanoma in the first place.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
On Wednesday the company said that a large randomized trial met its goal of preventing cancer recurrence and metastasis, though it didn’t publish the data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
The discovery reveals a previously unknown way that cancer cells left behind after therapy may contribute to metastasis.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
Several genes known for tumor-suppressing functions became more active, while genes linked to cancer progression and metastasis became less active.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 29, 2026
A further application of the hypothesis of metastasis will be noticed below in connection with the determination of the sternum of fishes.
From Form and Function A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology by E. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell
Three weeks later, she learnt she actually had stage three cancer with limited metastases.
From Barron's ● Feb. 15, 2026
Lung metastases indicate that cancer has entered the bloodstream and are linked to worse outcomes for patients.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 22, 2026
A major validation of this approach came from a melanoma trial that delivered results few expected: a 49% reduction in cancer recurrence and a 62% reduction in deadly distant metastases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2025
"The vast majority of tumor mortality is still due to metastases, and it almost trumps us working in difficult-to-reach cancers, such as melanoma and pancreatic cancer."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2025
Bearing in mind that in none of the other 39 cases were myelocytes demonstrated, one does not hesitate to explain their presence in the blood in this single case by the metastases in the bone-marrow.
From Histology of the Blood Normal and Pathological by W. Myers
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.
