metabolism

See also: Metabolism

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μεταβολή (metabolḗ, “change”) +‎ -ism, from μεταβάλλω (metabállō, “I change, I alter”) +‎ -η (-ē, “action noun suffix”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɪˈtab.ə.lɪz.əm/, [mɪˈtab.ə.lɪz.m̩]

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /məˈtæb.əˌlɪz.əm/, [məˈtæb.əˌlɪz.m̩]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /mɪˈtæb.ə.lɪz.əm/, [mɪˈtæb.ə.lɪz.m̩]

Noun

metabolism (countable and uncountable, plural metabolisms)

1. (physiology) The chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.

   Hyponyms: anabolism, catabolism

   The metabolisms of aerobic bacteria require oxygen

2. (physiology, by extension) The rate at which these processes occur for a given organism

   Small animals have a much higher metabolism than large animals because they lose more body heat

3. (figurative, by extension) The processes that maintain any dynamic system.
   • 1980, Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave, page 230:

     The results of this generalized speedup of the corporate metabolism are multiple: shorter product life cycles, more leasing and renting, more frequent buying and selling, more ephemeral consumption patterns, […]

Derived terms

• ametabolism
• bradymetabolism
• chronometabolism
• cometabolism
• dysmetabolism
• endometabolism
• exometabolism
• glycometabolism
• hemimetabolism
• heterometabolism
• holometabolism
• hypermetabolism
• hypometabolism
• immunometabolism
• lipometabolism
• macrometabolism
• neurometabolism
• paurometabolism
• photometabolism
• protometabolism
• radiometabolism
• saccharometabolism
• sialometabolism
• thermometabolism

 

Related terms

• antimetabole
• metabola
• metabolisation

Translations

complete set of chemical reactions that occur in living cells

• Arabic: أَيْض (ar) m (ʔayḍ), تَمْثِيل غِذَائِيّ m (tamṯīl ḡiḏāʔiyy), اِسْتِقْلَاب m (istiqlāb)
• Armenian: նյութափոխանակություն (hy) (nyutʿapʿoxanakutʿyun)
• Asturian: metabolismu m
• Azerbaijani: maddələr mübadiləsi
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: абмен рэчываў (abmjen rečyvaŭ), метабалі́зм m (mjetabalízm)
• Bulgarian: обмяна на веществата f (obmjana na veštestvata)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: metabolisme m
• Chinese:

  Hokkien: 代謝／代谢 (zh-min-nan) (tāi-siā)

  Mandarin: 代謝／代谢 (zh) (dàixiè), 新陳代謝／新陈代谢 (zh) (xīnchén dàixiè)

• Czech: metabolismus (cs) m, metabolizmus m
• Danish: stofskifte (da)
• Dutch: stofwisseling (nl) m, metabolisme (nl) n
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: ainevahetus
• Faroese: evnaskifti n, evnabroyting f
• Finnish: aineenvaihdunta (fi), metabolismi (fi)
• French: métabolisme (fr) m
• Galician: metabolismo (gl) m
• Georgian: ნივთიერებათა ცვლა (nivtierebata cvla), მეტაბოლიზმი (meṭabolizmi)
• German: Stoffwechsel (de) m, Metabolismus (de) m

  Central Franconian: Schtoffwääßel

• German Low German: Stoffwessel
• Greek: μεταβολισμός (el) m (metavolismós)
• Gujarati: ચયાપચય (cayāpacya)
• Hawaiian: pūnao
• Hebrew: חילוף חומרים (he) m (khilúf khomarím), מטבוליזם (he) m (metabolízem)
• Hindi: चयापचय (cayāpacay)
• Hungarian: anyagcsere (hu)
• Icelandic: efnaskipti n
• Ido: metabolio (io)
• Italian: metabolismo (it) m, ricambio (it) m
• Japanese: 代謝 (ja) (たいしゃ, taisha), 新陳代謝 (ja) (しんちんたいしゃ, shinchin taisha), 物質代謝 (ぶっしつたいしゃ, busshitsu taisha)
• Kannada: ಚಯಾಪಚಯ (kn) (cayāpacaya)
• Kazakh: зат алмасу (zat almasu)
• Khmer: ការដុតរំលាយអាហារក្នុងរាងកាយ (kaa dot rumliəy ʼaahaa knong riəngkaay)
• Korean: 신진대사(新陳代謝) (ko) (sinjin daesa), 물질대사(物質代謝) (ko) (muljil daesa)
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: vielmaiņa
• Limburgish: stofwisseling
• Lithuanian: metabolizmas m, medžiagų apykaita f
• Luxembourgish: stoffwiessel
• Malay: ungkai bina
• Malayalam: ഉപാപചയം (upāpacayaṁ)
• Maori: whakarau pūngao
• Marathi: चयापचय (cayāpcay)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: stoffskifte (no) n

  Nynorsk: stoffskifte n

• Persian: متابولیسم (fa) (metâbolism)
• Polish: metabolizm (pl) m, przemiana materii (pl) m
• Portuguese: metabolismo (pt) m
• Quechua: imayay yamkiy
• Romanian: metabolism (ro) n
• Russian: метаболи́зм (ru) m (metabolízm), обме́н веще́ств (ru) m (obmén veščéstv)
• Serbo-Croatian: metabolìzam (sh) m
• Slovene: presnova, presnavljanje
• Spanish: metabolismo (es) m
• Swedish: metabolism (sv) c, ämnesomsättning (sv)
• Tagalog: kapbisa
• Tamil: வளர்சிதைமாற்றம் (vaḷarcitaimāṟṟam)
• Tatar: алышынуы (alışınuwı)
• Telugu: జీవక్రియ (jīvakriya)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: metabolizma (tr), özgeriş, ^{(please verify)} özgerinç, istiklâp
• Ukrainian: обмін речовин (uk) (obmin rečovyn), метаболі́зм m (metabolízm)
• Vietnamese: trao đổi chất, biến dưỡng
• Welsh: metabolaeth f

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French métabolisme.

Noun

metabolism n (uncountable)

1. metabolism

Declension

declension of metabolism (singular only)

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) metabolism	metabolismul
genitive/dative	(unui) metabolism	metabolismului
vocative	metabolismule

Swedish

Noun

metabolism c

1. metabolism

   Synonym: ämnesomsättning

Declension

Declension of metabolism
	Uncountable
	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	metabolism	metabolismen	—	—
Genitive	metabolisms	metabolismens	—	—

References

• metabolism in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• metabolism in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)