Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The rhythmic contraction of the heart, especially of the ventricles, by which blood is driven through the aorta and pulmonary artery after each dilation or diastole.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In anc. orthoëpy and prosody: Pronunciation of a vowel as short.
- n. The shortening of a vowel or syllable, especially of one usually treated as a long; correption: opposed to diastole or ectasis.
- n. In physiology, the contraction of the heart and arteries for propelling the blood and thus carrying on the circulation. Clinically, systole usually refers to the ventricular systole, regarded as beginning with the first sound and ending with the occurrence of the second sound. Compare
diastole . - n. The contraction of the pulsatile vesicles of infusorians and other protozoans.
- n. [capitalized] In entomology, a genus of hymenopterous insects.
Wiktionary
- n. physiology The rhythmic contraction of the heart, by which blood is driven through the arteries.
- n. prosody A shortening of a naturally long vowel.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Gram.) The shortening of the long syllable.
- n. (Physiol. & Biol.) The contraction of the heart and arteries by which the blood is forced onward and the circulation kept up; also, the contraction of a rhythmically pulsating contractile vacuole; -- correlative to
diastole .
WordNet 3.0
- n. the contraction of the chambers of the heart (especially the ventricles) to drive blood into the aorta and pulmonary artery
Etymologies
- From New Latin, from Ancient Greek συστολή (sustolē), from συστέλλειν (sustellein, "to contract"), from σύν (sun, "together") + στέλλειν (stellein, "send"). (Wiktionary)
- Greek sustolē, contraction, from sustellein, to contract; see systaltic. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The interpretation that the P-peak belongs to the auricular systole is mainly based on his observation of electrocardiograms in cases of heart block in patients or during vagus stimulation in dogs.”
“The words "systole" - usually used to refer to ventricular systole, the phase of your cardiac cycle where your ventricles, the big chambers, are contracting to eject blood - and”
“There were all sorts of speculations about the matter, but nobody had formed this conception, and nobody understood that the so-called systole of the heart is a state of active contraction, and the so-called diastole is a mere passive dilatation.”
“The blood, however, does not flow out of the heart into the arteries in a continued stream, but by jets, or pulses; when the ventricles are filled with blood from the auricles, this blood stimulates them, and thereby causes them to contract; by such contraction, they force the blood, which they contain, into the arteries; this contraction is called the systole of the heart.”
Popular Lectures on Zoonomia Or The Laws of Animal Life, in Health and Disease
“He thought that both the contractions and dilatations of the heart -- what we call the 'systole' or contraction of the heart, and the 'diastole' or dilatation -- Galen thought that these were both active movements; that the heart actively dilated, so that it had a sort of sucking power upon the fluids which had access to it.”
“systole" (compare Section 44), forcing out of its body, the water, carbon dioxide, urea, and other katastases, which are formed concomitantly with its activity.”
“Diastole and systole, diastole and systole, not arrhythmia.”
Distracted Much? Don’t Worry, It’s A Good Thing | Lifehacker Australia
“But he argues that the West, far from a monolithic bulwark against "diversity," is "the mongrel civilization par excellence"; the systole and diastole of contractive monoculturalism and expansive multiculturalism are its heartbeat.”
“It is not nostalgia or some far-flung history; it — freedom, liberty — is present in this very moment and Hayden wishes it to be alive in our very blood and muscle: “diastole, systole,/reflex action.””
“He thought that both the contractions and dilatations of the heart — what we call the ‘systole’ or contraction of the heart, and the”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘systole’.
-
SCIE - Be the first...
... to use these words in spoken English and reap esteem. In the SPOKEN corpus of the COCA (full corpus: 450 million words) none of these occur.
stochastic, disputant, state-led, almshouse, exceptionality, bibliographical, t-test, z-score, personal/social, neoplastic, stroma, ludic and 288 more...
-
Rhetorical Devices
trope, wellerism, antimetabole, syncope, open-list, accismus, abating, abbaser, abecedarian, abcisio, ablatio, abominatio and 425 more...
-
Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
-
polymorph's Words
pornerastic, yeaux, enantiadromia, synchronicity, transubstantiation, sensimilla, slough, scaphism, symbiosis, prolix, orgiastic, cryptogamic and 245 more...
-
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
-
wickedwitch's list
lll
alit, plinth, eclat, diaphanous, portico, nival, daedal, apse, fossa, pellet, avail, midge and 143 more...
-
Nabokov vocabulary
verisimilitude, geminate, pedantic, intervestibular, equilibrist, nictitating, anastomosis, quiddity, torus, cacahuete, undulation, pensum and 135 more...
-
some words
phatic, macerate, amanuenses, theophagy, seraglio, gloaming, geophagy, metaphone, anastrophe, neologism, tetragrammaton, bête noire and 568 more...
-
Henderson the Rain King
Words taken from Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow.
yellowback, unkillable, swack, hoarfrost, decapotable, brownian, mackinaw, taxwise, oratorio, picaresque, masonite, catalpa and 109 more...
-
Speak, Memory
Words gathered while reading Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov.
cracknel, shingly, glaucous, stretcherman, goodish, loden, gutticle, percha, plasticine, instar, wellhole, camera-lucida and 357 more...
-
GRE uncommon
patronage, expletive, exhort, exegesis, execrable, excommunicate, evince, escarpment, ersatz, ergo, epoxy, snare and 1202 more...
-
jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
-
Winter 12
intermezzo, mackintosh, meretricious, matin, ortolan, leveret, oubliette, muezzin, minaret, volute, rubescent, fulgurant and 69 more...
-
Words of Note
autoscopic, Bilocation, enmesh, Inusitate, irenic, ipseity, slake, lee, waif, betide, intercessor, viand and 84 more...
-
Recently Encountered
These are words previously unknown to me, which I have recently encountered in my reading and require some repetition before their definitions will be readily at hand.
caparison, geodesy, lunette, tralatition, furuncular, systole, nebris, fascicle, mamihlapinatapai, saudade, aposiopesis, sciolism and 1 more...
-
Bachelard: The Poetics of Space
words I looked up while reading
panegyrics, topophilia, lares, oneirism, klaxoning, vaunted, presage, proferred, bugling, dovetailing, russet, diaphanous and 25 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for systole.
jmjarmstrong JM wonders where the missing bits of systoles end up? Mar 23, 2011