metastasis

me·ta·sta·sis
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UK/mɪˈtæstəsɪs/British, Southern, Standard/mɪˈtastəsɪs/US/məˈtæstəsəs/UK/mɪˈtæstəsiːs/

noun

A change in nature, form, or quality.

Less commonScrabble 12

Meanings

nounmetastasis (countable and uncountable, plural metastases)

plural metastases

  1. countableuncountableA change in nature, form, or quality.

    Stayed in her own house, searched her body each morning and examined her conscience each night for progressive symptoms of the metastasis she feared was in her.

    1963, Thomas Pynchon, V.
  2. countablefigurativelyuncountableThe spread of something harmful to another location, such as the metastasis of a cancer.
  3. countablerhetoricuncountableA sudden or rapid transition from one point, topic or argument to another, often to evade an uncomfortable subject or to redirect the discussion.
  4. countableuncountablemedicineThe transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body, specifically the development of a secondary area of disease remote from the original site, as with some cancers.

    Among the hypothesized diagnoses was metastatic carcinoma. In metastatic cancer, metastases are most frequent in the axial skeleton and are rare in the distal parts of the appendicular skeleton[…].

    2023, Simon Mays, “The Macroscopic Study of Human Skeletal Paleopathology” (chapter 2), in The Routledge Handbook of Paleopathology, Routledge, →DOI, →ISBN, page 27

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

  1. Late Latinmetastases
  2. Frenchmétastase
  3. Proto-Indo-European*steh₂-“to stand (up)”
  4. Proto-Indo-European*meth₂
  5. Ancient Greekμετάστασις“change; removal; (medicine) movement of disease, pain, etc., from one part of the body to another”
  6. Koine Greekμετάστασις“(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”
  7. Late Latinmetastasis“(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”
  8. Englishmetastasis

Learned borrowing from Late Latin metastasis (“(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”), and from its etymons Koine Greek μετάστασις (metástasis, “(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”) and Ancient Greek μετάστασις (metástasis, “change; removal; (medicine) movement of disease, pain, etc., from one part of the body to another”), from μετᾰ- (metă-, prefix denoting change in condition or position) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meth₂) + στᾰ́σῐς (stắsĭs, “condition, state; position”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)), modelled after μεθιστάναι (methistánai, “to change; to remove”). By surface analysis, meta- + stasis. In reference to the spread of cancer, a semantic loan from French métastase, whose use to refer to it was coined in 1829 by the French gynecologist Joseph Récamier (1774–1852). The plural form metastases is a learned borrowing from Late Latin metastases.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Catalan metàstasi
  • metàstasitransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Chinese Mandarin 轉移 /转移, 遠處轉移 /远处转移
  • 轉移 /转移 (zhuǎnyí)transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
  • 遠處轉移 /远处转移 (yuǎnchù zhuǎnyí)transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
  • 遠端轉移 /远端转移 (yuǎnduān zhuǎnyí)transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
  • 腫瘤轉移 /肿瘤转移 (of a tumour)transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
  • 轉移灶 /转移灶 (zhuǎnyízào)transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
  • 轉移瘤 /转移瘤 (zhuǎnyíliú)transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
  • 癌轉移 /癌转移 (áizhuǎnyí)transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Czech metastáza
  • metastázatransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Danish metastase
  • metastasetransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Dutch uitzaaiing, metastase
  • uitzaaiingtransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
  • metastasetransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Esperanto metastazo
  • metastazotransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Finnish etäpesäke, metastaasi
  • etäpesäketransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
  • metastaasitransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
French métastase
  • métastasetransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
German Metastase
  • Metastasetransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Hebrew גרורה
  • גרורהtransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Hungarian áttét
  • áttéttransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Indonesian metastasis, metastase
  • metastasistransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
  • metastasetransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Italian metastasi
  • metastasitransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Japanese 転移
  • 転移 (ten'i)transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Latvian riesums, metastāze
  • riesumstransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
  • metastāzetransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Lithuanian metastazė
  • metastazėtransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Norwegian Bokmål metastase
  • metastasetransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Polish przerzut, metastaza
  • przerzuttransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
  • metastazatransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Portuguese metástase
  • metástasetransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Romanian metastază
  • metastazătransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Russian метаста́з
  • метаста́з (metastáz)transference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Slovak metastáza
  • metastázatransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Spanish metástasis
  • metástasistransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Swedish metastas
  • metastastransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Turkish metastaz
  • metastaztransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Vietnamese di căn
  • di căntransference of a bodily function or disease to another part of the body
Cite this entry
APA

metastasis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metastasis

MLA

“metastasis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metastasis. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “metastasis,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metastasis.

Source: metastasis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.