Definition of "exocytosis" [exocytosis]

• A process of cellular secretion or excretion in which substances contained in vesicles are discharged from the cell by fusion of the vesicular membrane with the outer cell membrane. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This process is called exocytosis, and it is triggered by an arriving nerve impulse with some small probability."
• "The Golgi bud fuses with the inner surface of the axon synaptic membrane, and then, in a process known as exocytosis, bursts through on the outside, into the 20-nanometer-wide synaptic gap."
• "A model developed by Beck and Eccles applies concrete quantum mechanical features to describe details of the process of exocytosis."