platelet
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of platelet
Explanation
Platelets are tiny cell fragments that help your blood to clot. If you cut yourself, platelets clump together to slow the flow of blood and plug the cut. Blood clots are your body's way of repairing and healing cuts and scrapes in your skin, and platelets are an essential part of the clotting process. They're colorless disks, pieces of cells with no nuclei, and they're formed in your bone marrow along with white and red blood cells. Doctors and scientists measure blood in microliters, tiny drops, and a healthy person has as many as 450,000 platelets in one microliter of blood.
Vocabulary lists containing platelet
Human Anatomy and Physiology - Introductory
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Human Anatomy and Physiology - High School
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Life Science: Human Anatomy and Physiology
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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:
He spent nine days on a ventilator and 18 days on dialysis, during which time doctors gave him blood, platelet and plasma transfusions.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
As my blood counts fluctuated, and infections threatened, our middle sibling, Art Landro, provided platelet support collected from his blood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
Clinical trials showed only modest benefits, and the drugs often caused serious side effects such as widespread inflammation, dangerously low platelet levels, and liver damage.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 16, 2026
Since her diagnosis, Sian has been undergoing treatment to shrink her enlarged spleen and receiving weekly blood and platelet transfusions.
From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2026
Bull had started down the slope now, his boards out, and he was descending, alive, alive, adrenaline reinforcing every platelet, every blood cell, and his mind radiating with its response to danger.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
The common thread is that malignant cells overtake the marrow—the tissue that produces white blood cells to fight infection, red blood cells to carry oxygen, and platelets to prevent bleeding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026
Her doctors infused red blood cells, as well as platelets and plasma.
From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2025
In early April 2021, safety regulators in the UK and Europe had concluded that blood clots combined with low platelets should be listed as a rare side effect.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2024
Blood and platelets must be immediately available, yet they have a short shelf life, according to Daniel Parra, a spokesman for the American Red Cross.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2024
At some point, you’d have to run into water or rock or the earth’s platelets or something.
From "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins
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.
