English Explanatory Dictionary

systole

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The rhythmic contraction of the heart, by which blood is driven through the arteries.
  2. A shortening of a naturally long vowel.
  3. The shortest noncontractible loop on a compact metric space.
  4. The contraction of the contractile vesicles in certain algae, plasmodia, and zoospores.

Pronunciation

/ˈsɪstəli/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-systole.wav /ˈsəstəli/

Word forms

systole systoles

Etymology

Borrowed from New Latin, from Ancient Greek συστολή (sustolḗ), from συστέλλω (sustéllō, “to contract”), from σύν (sún, “together”) + στέλλω (stéllō, “to send”).

Antonyms

diastole

Derived words

asystole extrasystole hemisystole midsystole parasystole perisystole presystole systolic tachysystole
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on S Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary