Standard Lemma guide

leukocyte

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈluːkə(ʊ)sʌɪt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: L UW1 K AH0 S AY2 T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of a class of blood cells that play various roles in cell-mediated immunity.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, cytology, hematology, immunology, medicine, natural-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

blood cells that engulf and digest bacteria and fungi; an important part of the body's defense system

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: leucocyte, white blood cell, white cell, white blood corpuscle, white corpuscle, WBC

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: blood cell, blood corpuscle, corpuscle, free phagocyte

Narrower terms: myelocyte, myeloblast, lymphocyte, lymph cell, granulocyte, monocyte, basophil, basophile, neutrophil, neutrophile, eosinophil, eosinophile

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English leuko- Ancient Greek κῠ́τος (kŭ́tos)der. Latin cytader. English -cyte English leukocyte From leuko- + -cyte.

Across languages

Translations

51 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: левкоцит (levkocit) — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Catalan: leucòcit — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Chinese Mandarin: 白血球 (báixuèqiú) — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Chinese Mandarin: 白細胞 /白细胞 (báixìbāo) — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Czech: leukocyt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Danish: leukocyt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Dutch: leukocyt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Dutch: witte bloedcel — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Esperanto: leŭkocito — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Finnish: valkosolu — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Finnish: leukosyytti — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • French: leucocyte — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • German: Leukozyt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • German: weißes Blutkörperchen — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Greek: λευκό αιμοσφαίριο (lefkó aimosfaírio) — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Gujarati: શ્વેતકણ (śvetkaṇ) — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Hebrew: תא דם לבן — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Hebrew: לויקוציט — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Hindi: श्वेताणु (śvetāṇu) — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Hindi: श्वेत रक्त कोशिका (śvet rakt kośikā) — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Hungarian: leukocita — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Hungarian: fehérvérsejt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Indonesian: leukosit — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Indonesian: sel darah putih — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Irish: leocaicít — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Irish: fuilchill bhán — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Italian: leucocita — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Japanese: 白血球 (hakkekkyū) — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Korean: 백혈구 (baekhyeolgu) — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Latin: leucocytus — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Latvian: leikocīts — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Lithuanian: leukoci̇̀tas — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Māori: pūtau toto mā — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Norwegian Bokmål: leukocytt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Norwegian Bokmål: levkocytt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: leukocytt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: levkocytt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Polish: leukocyt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Polish: krwinka biała — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Portuguese: leucócito — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Russian: лейкоци́т (lejkocít) — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Spanish: leucocito — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Swedish: leukocyt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Swedish: vit blodkropp — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Tagalog: puting sihay-dugo — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Turkish: akyuvar — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Turkish: lökosit — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Ukrainian: лейкоци́т (lejkocýt) — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Vietnamese: bạch huyết cầu — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Welsh: lewcosyt — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
  • Welsh: cell wen — scientific name for white blood cell — see also white blood cell
Real reading context

leukocyte in complete knowledge articles