Word.ws English Dictionary

holocrine

holocrine adjective: of or relating to a mode of secretion in some exocrine glands in which the plasma membrane ruptures, releasing the cell's cytoplasm into the lumen of the gland.

Adjective

holocrine (not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to a mode of secretion in some exocrine glands in which the plasma membrane ruptures, releasing the cell's cytoplasm into the lumen of the gland.
    • The venom glands of teleosts consist of an aggregation of holocrine cells derived from the epidermis but often sunken into the dermis, on either side of a spine, usually of dorsal or pectoral fin.2004, B. G. Kapoor, Bhavna Khanna, Ichthyology Handbook, page 80
    • In Chiroptera and Insectivora, the holocrine glands can form glandular complexes.2007, Galina N. Solntseva, N. N. Dergunova (translator), Teresa Ott (linguistic editor), Morphology of the Auditory and Vestibular Organs in Mammals, with Emphasis on Marine Species, page 42

Origin of holocrine

From Ancient Greek ὅλος (hólos, “whole, entire”) and κρῑ́νω (krī́nō, “to separate”).

Questions about holocrine

What does holocrine mean?
Holocrine means of or relating to a mode of secretion in some exocrine glands in which the plasma membrane ruptures, releasing the cell's cytoplasm into the lumen of the gland.
What part of speech is holocrine?
Holocrine is an adjective.

Words near holocrine in the dictionary

  1. holocorder
  2. holocorders
  3. holocost
  4. Holocough
  5. holocranial
  6. holocrine
  7. holocryptic
  8. holocrystalline
  9. holocube
  10. holocubes
  11. holocurtinol

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holocrine (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “holocrine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holocrine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.