Meanings
present singular third person metastasizes · participle present metastasizing · participle past metastasized · past metastasized · alternative metastasise · alternative metastatize
- BritishEnglishOxfordUSspecificallytransitivemedicineOf a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis (“a secondary focus away from the primary site”) in (a body organ).
"I remember the first time he woke up throwing up, and my first thought wasn't, 'Oh he has the stomach flu,'" she [Rene McNall-Knapp] said. "It was, 'Oh, it's gone to his brain, and it's metastasized his brain, and he's throwing up because of that.'"
2013 May 11, Jaclyn Cosgrove, “Fostering hope: Doctor learns about being a mother to child with cancer”, in The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, Okla.: Oklahoma Pub. Co., →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 Feb 2026 - BritishEnglishOxfordUSfigurativelytransitiveTo disseminate or spread (something, often an undesirable thing), especially in a destructive manner.
In a broader sense, criticism as a form is in trouble. And celebrities like [Ariana] Grande, like [Michael] Che, like [Olivia] Munn, who swat at it to the delight of their fans, concerningly seem to metastasize the problem.
2019 April 26, Richard Lawson, “Why Critics Worry about Criticism”, in Radhika Jones, editor, Vanity Fair, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 Apr 2023 - BritishEnglishOxfordUSintransitivespecificallymedicineOf a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to undergo metastasis (“spreading from a primary site to one or more other sites in the body”).
Your lump could be a secondary cancer metastasized from the bowel. I had a patient like that not long ago.
2001, David Lodge, chapter 28, in Thinks … […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Viking Penguin, →ISBN, page 2761 more example
On other screens are closeups of skin pores, before and after, details of regimes for everything, your hands, your neck, your thighs. Your elbows, especially your elbows: aging begins at the elbows and metastasizes.
1988 October, Margaret Atwood, chapter 21, in Cat's Eye (A Seal Book), Toronto, Ont.: McClelland-Bantam, published October 1989, →ISBN, page 119 - BritishEnglishOxfordUSfigurativelyintransitiveOf a thing, often one which is undesirable: to disseminate or spread, especially in a destructive manner.
1 more example
Late last month, a conservative website called The Federalist published an article advocating that healthy, young Americans deliberately infect themselves with Covid-19, […] If enough Americans expose themselves to the virus and become immune, the theory goes, the country would have a mobilized cadre of immune citizens. […] The article was widely discredited by public health experts and economists, as both logically dubious and ethically specious, but such thinking has already metastasized.
2020 April 12, Kathryn Olivarius, “The dangerous history of immunoprivilege”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Jan 2026
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*steh₂-“to stand (up)”
- Proto-Indo-European*meth₂
- Ancient Greekμετάστασις“change; removal; (medicine) movement of disease, pain, etc., from one part of the body to another”
- Koine Greekμετάστασις“(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”
- Late Latinmetastasis“(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”
- Englishmetastasize
From metastasis + -ize (suffix forming verbs meaning to do things denoted by the adjectives or nouns the suffix is attached to). Metastasis is a 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”). The use of French métastase (“metastasis”) to refer to the spread of cancer was coined in 1829 by the French gynecologist Joseph Récamier (1774–1852).
More words from Late Latin, Koine Greek, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan metastatitzar
- metastatitzar(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Chinese Mandarin 轉移 /转移
- 轉移 /转移 (zhuǎnyí)(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Danish metastasere
- metastasere(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Dutch metastaseren, uitzaaien
- metastaseren(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
- uitzaaien(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Finnish metastasoida, metastasoitua
- metastasoida(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
- metastasoitua(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
- levittää(transitive) to disseminate or spread (something), especially in a destructive manner; (intransitive) to disseminate or spread, especially in a destructive manner — see also disseminate, spread
- levitä(transitive) to disseminate or spread (something), especially in a destructive manner; (intransitive) to disseminate or spread, especially in a destructive manner — see also disseminate, spread
French métastaser
- métastaser(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
German metastasieren, absiedeln
- metastasieren(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
- absiedeln(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Hungarian metasztatizál, áttétet képez
- metasztatizál(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
- áttétet képez(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
- áttétet ad(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Italian metastatizzare
- metastatizzare(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Japanese 転移する
- 転移する (ten'i suru)(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Polish dawać przerzuty, dać przerzuty
- dawać przerzuty(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
- dać przerzuty(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
- rozprzestrzeniać(transitive) to disseminate or spread (something), especially in a destructive manner; (intransitive) to disseminate or spread, especially in a destructive manner — see also disseminate, spread
- rozprzestrzenić(transitive) to disseminate or spread (something), especially in a destructive manner; (intransitive) to disseminate or spread, especially in a destructive manner — see also disseminate, spread
Romanian metastaza
- metastaza(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Spanish metastatizar, metastizar
- metastatizar(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
- metastizar(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Swedish metastasera
- metastasera(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Vietnamese di căn
- di căn(transitive) of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis in (a body organ); (intransitive) to undergo metastasis
Cite this entry
metastasize. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metastasize
“metastasize.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metastasize. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “metastasize,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metastasize.
Source: metastasize on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.