Metastasis

Pronunciation

• IPA: /mɪˈtæstÉ™sɪs/

Origin

From Late Latin, from Ancient Greek μετάστασις (metastasis, "removal, change"), from μεθίστημι (methistemi, "to remove, to change")

Full definition of metastasis

Noun

1. (medicine) The transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body, specifically the development of a secondary area of disease remote from the original site, as with some cancers.
• 1963: Thomas Pynchon, V.Stayed in her own house, searched her body each morning and examined her conscience each night for progressive symptoms of the metastasis she feared was in her.
2. (rhetoric) Denying adversaries' arguments and turning the arguments back on them.

Derived terms

• metastasectomy
• metastasized
• metastasizing
• metastatic