Standard Lemma guide

macrophage

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.

  • General-American: /ˈmækɹɔʊː.feɪd͡ʒ/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -eɪdʒ
  • CMU ARPABET: M AE1 K R OW0 F EY2 JH Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A white blood cell that phagocytizes necrotic cell debris and foreign material, including viruses, bacteria, and tattoo ink. It presents foreign antigens on MHC II to lymphocytes. Part of the innate immune system.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, cytology, 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

a large phagocyte; some are fixed and other circulate in the blood stream

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: phagocyte, scavenger cell

Narrower terms: histiocyte

History

Etymology

From macro- + -phage, both from Ancient Greek.

Across languages

Translations

25 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: بَالِعَة (bāliʕa) — type of white blood cell
  • Arabic: مَاكْرُوفَاج (mākrūfāj) — type of white blood cell
  • Catalan: macròfag — type of white blood cell
  • Chinese Mandarin: 巨噬細胞 /巨噬细胞 (jùshìxìbāo) — type of white blood cell
  • Czech: makrofág — type of white blood cell
  • Dutch: macrofaag — type of white blood cell
  • Finnish: makrofagi — type of white blood cell
  • French: macrophage — type of white blood cell
  • Galician: macrófago — type of white blood cell
  • German: Makrophage — type of white blood cell
  • German: Fresszelle — type of white blood cell
  • Hungarian: makrofág — type of white blood cell
  • Hungarian: nagy falósejt — type of white blood cell
  • Icelandic: gleypifruma — type of white blood cell
  • Icelandic: stóræta — type of white blood cell
  • Icelandic: stórátfruma — type of white blood cell
  • Italian: macrofago — type of white blood cell
  • Japanese: マクロファージ (makurofāji) — type of white blood cell
  • Northern Kurdish: hellûşênera gewre — type of white blood cell
  • Persian: ماکروفاژ (mâkrofâž) — type of white blood cell
  • Persian: ریزهخوار (rize-xwâr) — type of white blood cell
  • Portuguese: macrófago — type of white blood cell
  • Russian: макрофа́г (makrofág) — type of white blood cell
  • Spanish: macrófago — type of white blood cell
  • Swedish: makrofag — type of white blood cell