lymph
noun
Simple meaning
A colourless, watery, coagulable bodily fluid which bathes the tissues and is carried by the lymphatic system into the bloodstream.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
limfIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɪmf
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
physiology
A colourless, watery, coagulable bodily fluid which bathes the tissues and is carried by the lymphatic system into the bloodstream; it resembles blood plasma in containing white blood cells and especially lymphocytes but normally few red blood cells and no platelets.
immunology
The discharge from a sore, inflammation etc.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (physiology) A colourless, watery, coagulable bodily fluid which bathes the tissues and is carried by the lymphatic system into the bloodstream; it resembles blood plasma in containing white blood cells and especially lymphocytes but normally few red blood cells and no platelets.
Used this way, lymph is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Resembling lymph or lymphatic tissues.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A vascular duct that carries lymph which is eventually added to the venous blood circulation.
The source of lymph and lymphocytes.
The source of lymph and lymphocytes.
An agranulocytic leukocyte that normally makes up a quarter of the white blood cell count but increases in the presence of infection.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A neoplasm of lymph tissue that is usually malignant.
Of or relating to or produced by lymph.
Swelling (usually in the legs) caused by lymph accumulating in the tissues in the affected areas.
A vascular duct that carries lymph which is eventually added to the venous blood circulation.
Infectious disease caused by a species of chlamydia bacterium.
Infectious disease caused by a species of chlamydia bacterium.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “lymph” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.