LEUCOCYTE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does leucocyte mean? 

• LEUCOCYTE (noun)
  The noun LEUCOCYTE has 1 sense:

1. blood cells that engulf and digest bacteria and fungi; an important part of the body's defense system

  Familiarity information: LEUCOCYTE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LEUCOCYTE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Blood cells that engulf and digest bacteria and fungi; an important part of the body's defense system

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

leucocyte; leukocyte; WBC; white blood cell; white blood corpuscle; white cell; white corpuscle

Hypernyms ("leucocyte" is a kind of...):

blood cell; blood corpuscle; corpuscle (either of two types of cells (erythrocytes and leukocytes) and sometimes including platelets)

free phagocyte (a phagocyte that circulates in the blood)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "leucocyte"):

myelocyte (an immature leukocyte normally found in bone marrow)

myeloblast (a precursor of leukocytes that normally occurs only in bone marrow)

lymph cell; lymphocyte (an agranulocytic leukocyte that normally makes up a quarter of the white blood cell count but increases in the presence of infection)

granulocyte (a leukocyte that has granules in its cytoplasm)

monocyte (a type of granular leukocyte that functions in the ingestion of bacteria)

basophil; basophile (a leukocyte with basophilic granules easily stained by basic stains)

neutrophil; neutrophile (the chief phagocytic leukocyte; stains with either basic or acid dyes)

eosinophil; eosinophile (a leukocyte readily stained with eosin)

 Context examples 

A leucocyte with conspicuous cytoplasmic granules.

(Granulocyte, NCI Thesaurus)

These polyclonal antisera produced by immunization of horses with mice splenocytes exhibit some general anti-leucocyte activity as well as some antiplatelet activity and may produce varying degrees of leucopenia or thrombocytopenia; the primary effect of anti-lymphocyte antisera is to reduce the T-lymphocyte count.

(Horse Anti-mouse Anti-lymphocyte Serum, NCI Thesaurus)

In humans the granulocytes are also classified as polymorphonuclear leucocytes and are subdivided according to the staining properties of the granules into eosinophils, basophils and neutrophils.

(Granulocyte, NCI Thesaurus)