graft

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun (surgery) tissue or organ transplanted from a donor to a recipient; in some cases the patient can be both donor and recipient
  2. noun the practice of offering something (usually money) in order to gain an illicit advantage
  3. noun the act of grafting something onto something else

Etymology

From Middle English graffe, from Old French greffe (“stylus”), from Latin graphium (“stylus”), from Ancient Greek γραφείον (grapheíon), from γράφειν (gráphein, “to write”); probably akin to English carve. So named from the resemblance of a scion or shoot to a pointed pencil. Doublet of graphium. Compare graphic, grammar.

In classic literature

Synonyms

transplant

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