phagocyte

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

From the German Phagocyt, modified on the pattern of -cyte; phago- + -cyte.

We're the white corpuscles,--phagocytes, the scientists call us,--and our work is to police the blood-vessels, and kill off invaders that make trouble. — "Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea, Morgan Robertson
To say nothing of phagocytes, which push independence to the point of attacking the organism that nourishes them, or of germinal cells, which have their own life alongside the somatic cells--the facts of regeneration are enough: here an element or a group of elements suddenly reveals that, however limited its normal space and function, it can transcend them occasionally; it may even, in certain cases, be regarded as the equivalent of the whole. — Creative Evolution, Bergson, Henri

scavenger cell

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