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Definition of "homeostasis" []

  • The ability or tendency of an organism or cell to maintain internal equilibrium by adjusting its physiological processes. (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.

Use "homeostasis" in a sentence
  • "Cannon (1932) applied the term homeostasis (coined by 18th-century physician Claude Bernard) to this powerful self-regulating capability."
  • "Explain the meaning of the term homeostasis and give an example of a typical homeostatic mechanism."
  • "When metabolism goes down and stress goes down, then your self-repair mechanisms, which are physical mechanisms in your biology, they get activated, because stress interferes with the spontaneous self-repair mechanisms, or what we call homeostasis, in the body."