metabolism
noun
Simple meaning
The organic processes that are necessary for life.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
muhtabuhlihzuhmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
məˈtæbəlɪzəm
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
The organic processes (in a cell or organism) that are necessary for life
physiology
The chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.
physiologyby extension
The rate at which these processes occur for a given organism
figurativeby extension
The processes that maintain any dynamic system.
A post-war Japanese architectural movement that fused ideas about architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The organic processes (in a cell or organism) that are necessary for life
Used this way, metabolism 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.
Nearby words
- metabolic process , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use metabolism
- “Eating healthy food can boost your metabolism naturally.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: organic processes (in a cell
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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.