transfusion
Americannoun
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the act or process of transfusing.
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Medicine/Medical. the direct transferring of blood, plasma, or the like into a blood vessel.
noun
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the act or an instance of transfusing
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the injection of blood, blood plasma, etc, into the blood vessels of a patient
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The transfer of blood or a component of blood, such as red blood cells, plasma, or platelets, from one person to another to replace losses caused by injury, surgery, or disease. Donated blood products are tested for blood type and certain infectious diseases and stored in blood banks until they are used. The blood of the donor is shown to be histologically compatible, or crossmatched, with that of the recipient before transfusion.
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See more at Rh factor See Note at blood type
Etymology
Origin of transfusion
1570–80; < Latin trānsfūsiōn- (stem of trānsfūsiō ) decanting, intermingling, equivalent to trānsfūs ( us ) ( see transfuse) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
A transfusion is when doctors put blood into a patient's vein. An accident victim might need a transfusion if he's lost blood. Besides accidents, there are other medical conditions that require blood transfusions, such as heart disease and some kinds of surgery. The blood a patient receives during a transfusion usually comes from donations given by healthy people. You can use the noun transfusion for any transfer of liquid, like the pouring of lemonade from a glass pitcher to a plastic one, though it's most often used to describe the medical procedure.
Vocabulary lists containing transfusion
"Laws are not the only way to boost immunization”: an editorial from Nature
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Bronx Masquerade
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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.
Waldorf had spelled out the catch-22 in her journal that morning: “If I need a blood transfusion and it stabilizes my condition, they cannot induce. If my temp continues to spike then they can induce.”
From Salon • May 27, 2026
Dr Anne Kelly, paediatric transfusion and components clinical expert for NHSBT, said IUTs were very rare, donors were carefully selected and extra safety measures were applied, because patients were "particularly vulnerable".
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
Last week, thalassemia patients urged India's parliament to pass the National Blood Transfusion Bill 2025, saying it would strengthen regulation of blood collection, testing and transfusion.
From BBC • Dec. 19, 2025
“I got my blood transfusion when I married my wife.”
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2025
Baron dragged and carried McCormick to a nearby hut, sat him up on a cot, and gave him a large transfusion of blood serum from Africans who had survived Ebola.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
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.
