WHITE CELL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does white cell mean? 

• WHITE CELL (noun)
  The noun WHITE CELL has 1 sense:

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

  Familiarity information: WHITE CELL used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WHITE CELL (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 ("white cell" 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 "white cell"):

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 

The white cells and platelets are not affected.

(Congenital pure red cell aplasia, NCI Thesaurus)

Patients are at an increased risk of infection because of the low white cell counts.

(Felty Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

The peripheral blood plasma cells comprise more than 20% of the peripheral blood white cells.

(Plasma Cell Leukemia, NCI Thesaurus)

The urinalysis reveals the presence of white cells.

(Acute bacterial prostatitis, NCI Thesaurus)

It consists of blood vessel sinuses and a network of hematopoietic cells which give rise to the red cells, white cells, and megakaryocytes.

(Bone marrow, NCI Thesaurus)

A hematologic procedure to determine the number of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets, including the white cell differential count and red cell morphology, in a blood sample.

(Blood cell count with differential, NCI Thesaurus)

Red blood cells live about 120 days, platelets 6 days and white cells less than a day.

(Blood, NIH)

At therapeutic doses, it does not influence white cell counts or coagulation parameters.

(Anagrelide, NCI Thesaurus)

A hematologic procedure for the evaluation of the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the white cells in peripheral blood smears and bone marrow aspirates.

(Differential Leukocyte Count, NCI Thesaurus)

It is characterized by: 1. the presence of blasts in the peripheral blood or bone marrow that are at least 20% of the peripheral blood white cells or of the nucleated cells in the bone marrow respectively, or 2. an extramedullary proliferation of blasts, and/or 3. when there are large aggregates and clusters of blasts in the bone marrow biopsy specimen (adapted from WHO, 2001).

(Blast Phase Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, BCR-ABL1 Positive, NCI Thesaurus)