agglutination

[ uh-gloot-n-ey-shuhn ]

noun

1. the act or process of uniting by glue or other tenacious substance.
2. the state of being thus united; adhesion of parts.
3. that which is united; a mass or group cemented together.
4. Immunology. the clumping of bacteria, red blood cells, or other cells, due to the introduction of an antibody.
5. Linguistics. a process of word formation in which morphemes, each having one relatively constant shape, are combined without fusion or morphophonemic change, and in which each grammatical category is typically represented by a single morpheme in the resulting word, especially such a process involving the addition of one or more affixes to a base, as in Turkish, in which ev means “house,” ev-den means “from a house,” and ev-ler-den means “from houses.”

agglutination

/ əˌɡluːtɪˈneɪʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of agglutinating
2. the condition of being agglutinated; adhesion
3. a united mass or group of parts
4. chem the formation of clumps of particles in a suspension
5. biochem proteinaceous particles, such as blood cells and bacteria, that form clumps in antibody–antigen reactions
6. immunol the formation of a mass of particles, such as erythrocytes, by the action of antibodies
7. linguistics the building up of words from component morphemes in such a way that these undergo little or no change of form or meaning in the process of combination

agglutination

/ ə-glo̅o̅t′n-ā′shən /

1. The clumping together of biologic material, such as red blood cells or bacteria, that is suspended in liquid, usually in response to a particular antibody.

Other Words From

• anti·ag·gluti·nation adjective
• inter·ag·gluti·nation noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of agglutination¹

First recorded in 1535–45; agglutinate + -ion

Example Sentences

By 1989, The Times reported, Davis had “reshaped Gulf & Western from a ragtag agglutination of about 100 businesses to a thriving corporation focused in entertainment, publishing and finance.”

From Los Angeles Times

Landsteiner inferred that there must be different types of blood, and that they could be classified based on these observed agglutinations.

From The New Yorker

Otherwise, like me, you might find yourself marveling at her mastery of language but distracted by wondering how she landed on words like “agglutination” or phrases such as “omniscient homunculus.”

From Washington Post

In the 1800s, doctors knew that transfusing blood between individuals could cause red blood cells to clump — a phenomenon called agglutination.

From The Verge

One example is the way Finnish uses agglutination, or builds complex words out of multiple smaller words or parts of words.

From Washington Times