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merocrine

merocrine adjective: of or pertaining to certain exocrine glands that secrete without major damage to the secretory cells.

Adjective

merocrine (not comparable)

  1. Of or pertaining to certain exocrine glands that secrete without major damage to the secretory cells.
    • Merocrine cells have several full secretion cycles — the merocrine secretion cell does not die when it secretes into the lumen of the gland.1982, Vladimir Evgenʹevich Sokolov, Mammal Skin, University of California Press, page 20
    • Secretions from glands are produced by merocrine, apocrine and holocrine modes of secretion (Fig. 3.4). In merocrine secretion, membrane bound secretory vesicles are formed and accumulate below the free surface of the cell.[…]There is no loss of cytoplasm in merocrine secretion.2011, S. M. Kisia, Vertebrates: Structures and Functions, page 53
    Synonyms:
    eccrine

Synonyms of merocrine

Origin of merocrine

From mero- (“partial”) + Ancient Greek κρῑ́νω (krī́nō, “to separate”).

Questions about merocrine

What does merocrine mean?
Merocrine means of or pertaining to certain exocrine glands that secrete without major damage to the secretory cells.
What part of speech is merocrine?
Merocrine is an adjective.

Words near merocrine in the dictionary

  1. merochlorins
  2. merochlorophaeic acid
  3. meroclone
  4. meroclones
  5. merocracy
  6. merocrine
  7. merocyanine
  8. merocyanines
  9. merocyclic
  10. merocyclism
  11. merocyte

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: merocrine (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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