Meanings
- not comparableanatomyOf or pertaining to an apocrine gland or to its mode of secretion, which involves the budding of portions of the secreting cells.
Two appreciate what happened, note that sweat glands come in two varieties, apocrine and eccrine.
2016, Joseph Henrich, chapter 5, in The Secret of Our Success […] , Princeton: Princeton University Press, →ISBN3 more examples
They observed that apocrine metaplasia often was present in breasts with other "noncancerous proliferative lesions," but they found no significant difference in the frequency of apocrine metaplasia between "cancerous and noncancerous breasts."
2001, Paul Peter Rosen, Rosen's Breast Pathology, page 97Lobular cysts as well as micro- and macrocysts are very often lined to a variable extent by apocrine epithelium. Pathologists call this condition apocrine metaplasia, meaning a transformation of the normal epithelial cells into sweat-gland-like cells similar to those found in the apocrine glands of the vulva, eyelid, and external auditory canal.
2003, Marton Lanyi, Mammography: Diagnosis and Morphological Analysis, page 64Apocrine glands are distributed throughout the body but are present in greatest abundance in the axilla, followed by the anogenital region.
2011, Jivko A. Kamarashev, “3.2.1: Tumours with Apocrine and Eccrine Differentiation”, in Reinhard Dummer, Mark R. Pittelkow, Keiji Iwatsuki, Adèle Green, Nagwa M. Elwan, editors, Skin Cancer - A World-Wide Perspective, page 128
Synonyms & antonyms
adjective(of exocrine glands) producing a secretion in which part of the secreting cell is released with the secretion
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Ancient Greekκρῑ́νω“to separate”
- Englishapocrine
From apo- (“away from”) + Ancient Greek κρῑ́νω (krī́nō, “to separate”).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish apokriininen
- apokriininenof or pertaining to an apocrine gland or to its mode of secretion
Italian apocrino
- apocrinoof or pertaining to an apocrine gland or to its mode of secretion
Portuguese apócrino
- apócrinoof or pertaining to an apocrine gland or to its mode of secretion
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
apocrine. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/apocrine
“apocrine.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/apocrine. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “apocrine,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/apocrine.
Source: apocrine on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.