Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To be transmitted or transferred by metastasis.
- v. To be changed or transformed, especially dangerously: "a need for love that would metastasize into an insatiable craving for attention” ( Michiko Kakutani).
- v. To spread, especially destructively: "[disinformation] ... that even now continues to metastasize ... to such a degree that myth threatens to overthrow history” ( Gore Vidal).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In pathology, to produce new foci of disease in more or less distant parts by means of metastasis: referring usually to malignant growths.
Wiktionary
- v. medicine, of a disease or tumour To spread to other sites in the body; to undergo metastasis.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. to spread from one part of the body to other parts, and grow there; to spread by metastasis{3}; -- said of cancer cells.
WordNet 3.0
- v. spread throughout the body
Etymologies
- From metastasis + -ize. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Moving on to Europe, Huntsman used the word "metastasize" to describe the euro crisis.”
The Guardian: GOP presidential debate in South Carolina - as it happened
“Then Rick Perry is asked a similar question – and he doesn't use the word "metastasize".”
The Guardian: GOP presidential debate in South Carolina - as it happened
“You take out the main operational leader and then the cells kind of metastasize and become harder targets because they're dispersed.”
“While the fiscal problems "aren't prompting long-term yields to surge at present, there could come a sudden tipping point with this kind of problem, and it could metastasize to a more serious phase," he said at a news conference.”
The Wall Street Journal: Japan Bond Yield Falls to 7-Month Low on Greece Concerns
“But breast tumors, not fatal by themselves, can metastasize to the lungs or other vital organs before they are large enough to be discovered by a mammogram — in which case the women is likely to die whether she has a mammogram or not.”
“Al Qaeda is indeed something like a sickness; it is like a cancerous growth that can metastasize at totally unforeseen places, as the London and Madrid attacks showed.”
“Questions like: What makes a tumor metastasize, or spread through the body?”
“Convinced that private tutoring is a "slippery slope," the father was certain that a biology tutor would only teach his son that if he made a mess, someone would be there to clean it up and, moreover, this mindset would metastasize into other areas of his son's life.”
The Huffington Post: Alex Mallory: Isn't Tutoring Just a Crutch?
“As for the year we leave behind, it was, at least in the American political arena, another blue-ribbon winner for deceit and stupidity -- traits that, unfortunately for all of us, tend to metastasize wildly as elections approach.”
The Huffington Post: Daniel Cluchey: Unsolicited New Year's Resolutions
“• Scandals surrounding the now-bankrupt Solyndra, Fannie and Freddie, MF Global and administration insider deals still to emerge will metastasize, demolishing the president's image as a political outsider.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘metastasize’.
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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Gesundheit
Words that sound like sneezes
zucchini, zoology, wysiwyg, woodchuck, withhold, wichita, vacuum, twelfth, syzygy, synchronous, swatch, supersede and 120 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
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Beknownst1981's list
I love words, especially the ones I make up with my friends.
translucent meat ..., beknownst (knew), plethora, curmudgeon, wanderlust, actually, differentiate, bearded, hobbit feet, female, sexy time, librarian and 220 more...
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anotherfailedattempt's Words
kakistocracy, conflagration, pollyanna, equanimity, punctillious, obstreperous, ribald, belligerent, truculent, verbose, lachrymose, onanism and 278 more...
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danallison's Words
polysemy, self-reliance, savor, amenities, vintage, proverbial, colloquial, assemblage, ubiquitous, jocular, prosaic, perambulation and 443 more...
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Annsley's list
churlish, bibulous, salt, salty, conjugal, fabulist, maw, primordial, chimera, emetic, surly, excrescence and 228 more...
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Poison's list
vociferous, melancholy, sullen, atrocious, lethargy, exacerbate, congruous, fortuitous, scathing, dilate, metastasize, piquant and 23 more...
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them's reading words
things i pick up over the course of my academic reading
puissance, cleped, tintinnabulation, metastasize, dithyramb, coenesthesis, conflate, hegemonic, counter-hegemonic, conventicle, dialectic, mendacity and 14 more...
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fantasy & horror story
obeah, cenobite, protean, amaranth, obfuscate, auspex, cyclopean, quietus, vicissitude, metastasize, lugubrious, vicissitude and 1 more...
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GRE 31
quotidian, vituperate, vicissitude, veracity, metastasize, wax, piquant, emotive, largess, indolence, queasiness, extension and 44 more...
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slevenback's Words
cabal, opiate, jib, concise, cogent, pique, y'all, reckon, rassle, ficus, pecan, kindling and 72 more...
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GRE
predilection, inveigle, inveigh, maladroit, peremptory, irreverent, didactic, confound, cogent, canard, factotum, wag and 82 more...
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verbs
individualize, eroticize, propense, instantiate, minify, spritzes, somersault, graffitied, fabulize, genuflect, traipse, concatenate and 26 more...
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my words
any word that is fun to say will be included in this list
eschew, sparkle, obfuscation, psychosomatic, raconteur, etymological, erudite, ruminations, genuflect, slavering, excoriation, recompense and 53 more...
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Scariest Words Ever
Not just buzzkills, these words make you question whether you really value life and live every moment--and if not, how can you start?
After you read this, I recommend reading something l...cancer, metastasize, inoperable, incurable, carcinoma, sarcoma, tumor, malignant, chemotherapy, radiation, degenerative, retrovirus and 8 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for metastasize.

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