Phrase guide

red blood cell

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: /ɹɛd blʌd sɛl/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A type of cell in the blood of vertebrates that contains hemoglobin and transports oxygen from the lungs to the tissues; an erythrocyte.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

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

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: RBC, red cell, erythrocyte, haematid, red corpuscle

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a mature blood cell that contains hemoglobin to carry oxygen to the bodily tissues; a biconcave disc that has no nucleus

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: RBC, erythrocyte

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: blood cell, blood corpuscle, corpuscle

Narrower terms: megalocyte, macrocyte, megaloblast, acanthocyte, microcyte, reticulocyte, sickle cell, siderocyte, spherocyte, target cell

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

62 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: كُرَيَّةُ دَمٍ حَمْرَاء (kurayyatu damin ḥamrāʔ) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Asturian: hematí — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Bulgarian: червено кръвно телце (červeno krǎvno telce) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Catalan: hematia — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Catalan: glòbul vermell — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Chinese Mandarin: 紅細胞 /红细胞 (hóngxìbāo) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Chinese Mandarin: 紅血球 /红血球 (hóngxuèqiú) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Czech: červená krvinka — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Danish: rød blodcelle — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Danish: rødt blodlegeme — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Dutch: rode bloedcel — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Faroese: reytt blóðkorn — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Finnish: punainen verisolu — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Finnish: punasolu — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • French: globule rouge — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • French: érythrocyte — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • French: hématie — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • German: rotes Blutkörperchen — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • German: rote Blutzelle — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Greek: ερυθρό αιμοσφαίριο (erythró aimosfaírio) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Greek: ερυθροκύτταρο (erythrokýttaro) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Gujarati: રક્તકણ (raktakaṇ) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Hebrew: כַּדּוּרִית דָּם אֲדוּמָּה (kaduít dam a'dumá) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Hebrew: תָּא דָּם אָדוֹם (ta dam adom) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Hebrew: אריתרוציט — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Hindi: रक्ताणु (raktāṇu) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Hindi: लाल रक्त कोशिका (lāl rakt kośikā) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Hungarian: vörösvérsejt — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Hungarian: vörösvértest — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Icelandic: rautt blóðkorn — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Icelandic: rauðkorn — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Icelandic: rauð blóðfruma — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Icelandic: rauðfruma — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Indonesian: sel darah merah — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Irish: fuilchill dhearg — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Irish: eiritricít — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Italian: globulo rosso — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Italian: emazia — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Japanese: 赤血球 (sekkekkyū) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Korean: 적혈구 (jeokhyeolgu) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Northern Kurdish: xiroka sor — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Northern Kurdish: erîtrosît — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Māori: pūtau-toto-whero — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Persian: گویچهٔ قرمز (guiče-ye qermez) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Polish: czerwona krwinka — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Portuguese: glóbulo vermelho — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Portuguese: célula vermelha — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Portuguese: hemácia — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Romanian: hematie — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Romanian: globulă roșie — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Russian: кра́сная кровяна́я кле́тка (krásnaja krovjanája klétka) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Serbo-Croatian: crveno krvno zrnce — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Spanish: hematíe — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Spanish: glóbulo rojo — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Swahili: seli nyekundu ya damu — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Swedish: röd blodkropp — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Tagalog: pulang sihay-dugo — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Thai: เม็ดเลือดแดง (mét-lʉ̂ʉat-dɛɛng) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Turkish: alyuvar — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Ukrainian: червонокрі́вець (červonokrívecʹ) — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Vietnamese: hồng cầu — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte
  • Vietnamese: hồng huyết cầu — haemoglobin-carrying blood cell in vertebrates — see also erythrocyte