Standard Lemma guide
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
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.
noun
The rhythmic contraction of the heart, by which blood is driven through the arteries.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: medicine, physiology, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A shortening of a naturally long vowel.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, rhetoric, uncountable
Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, phonology, prosody, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The shortest noncontractible loop on a compact metric space.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: mathematics, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The contraction of the contractile vesicles in certain algae, plasmodia, and zoospores.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: biology, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
the contraction of the chambers of the heart (especially the ventricles) to drive blood into the aorta and pulmonary artery
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: pulse, pulsation, heartbeat, beat
Narrower terms: extrasystole
History
Borrowed from New Latin, from Ancient Greek συστολή (sustolḗ), from συστέλλω (sustéllō, “to contract”), from σύν (sún, “together”) + στέλλω (stéllō, “to send”).
Across languages
17 source translations are retained for this English entry.
