Peristalsis

Definition: Peristalsis

Peristalsis

Noun

1. The process of wave-like muscle contractions of the alimentary tract that moves food along.

Etymology: Peristalsis \Per`i*stal"sis\, noun. [New Latin expression. See Peristaltic.]. (Websters 1913)

Domain	Definitions
Health	The rippling motion of muscles in the intestine or other tubular organs characterized by the alternate contraction and relaxation of the muscles that propel the contents onward. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Peristalsis is the process of involuntary wave-like successive muscular contractions by which food is moved through the digestive tract.

The large, hollow organs of the digestive system contain muscle that enables their walls to move. The movement of organ walls can propel food and liquid and also can mix the contents within each organ. Typical movement of the esophagus, stomach, and intestine is called peristalsis. The action of peristalsis looks like an ocean wave moving through the muscle. The muscle of the organ produces a narrowing and then propels the narrowed portion slowly down the length of the organ. These waves of narrowing push the food and fluid in front of them through each hollow organ.

Synonym: Peristalsis

Synonym: vermiculation (n). (additional references)

Antonym: anastalsis (n). (additional references)

Crosswords: Peristalsis

English words defined with "peristalsis": anastalsis ♦ roughage. (references)

Specialty definitions using "peristalsis": Domperidone. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Peristalsis" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

Manx (peristalsis), Spanish (peristalsis).

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		The action of peristalsis looks like an ocean wave moving through the muscle. (references)
		Typical movement of the esophagus, stomach, and intestine is called peristalsis. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Peristalsis" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Peristalsis" is used about 68 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	68	40,606

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "peristalsis"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Arabic		‏التحوي موجات متعاقبة. (various references)

Bulgarian		перисталтика. (various references)

Danish		peristaltik (movement of the intestine). (various references)

Dutch		peristaltiek (movement of the intestine). (various references)

Farsi		حرکت دودی(تش.), حرکات حلقوی , جنبش کرم وار. (various references)

Finnish		peristaltiikka (movement of the intestine), suoliston liike (movement of the intestine). (various references)

French		péristaltisme, péristaltique (peristaltic), péristalisme. (various references)

German		Peristaltik (movement of the intestine). (various references)

Greek		περισταλτικός (movement of the intestine, peristaltic, restricitve, restrictive), περισταλτική κίνηση, περισταλτισμός, περίσταλσισ, εντεροκινησία. (various references)

Hungarian		gyomor- és bélmozgás. (various references)

Italian		peristalsi. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		� �動 (crawling like a worm, vermiculation). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ぜ�"どう (all Hokkaido, Buddhist altar light, crawling like a worm, path of virtue, proper guidance, righteousness, vermiculation, Zen meditation hall). (various references)

Manx		peristalsis, gluggal gailley. (various references)

Pig Latin		eristalsispay

Portuguese		peristaltismo (peristaltic). (various references)

Russian		перистальтика (peristalses). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		peristaltika. (various references)

Spanish		peristalsis. (various references)

Swedish		peristaltik (movement of the intestine). (various references)

Turkish		bağırsakların yutma hareketleri. (various references)

Ukranian		перистальтика. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Misspellings
	"Peristalsis" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aperistalsis, paristalsis, perastalsis, peristaesis, peristalis, peristalisis, peristasis, peristlasis, peristolsis, peritalsis, perstalsis. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Words rhyming with "peristalsis" (pronounced 'Per`i*stal"sis'): Agennesis, Anemosis, apsis, Archebiosis, Arsis, Arteriosclerosis, Arthrosis, Asepsis, Athetosis, Autokinesis, Auxesis, Basis, Biognosis, Geognosis, Glaucosis, Gnosis, haematosis, hidrosis, hydrarthrosis, hydronephrosis, hysteresis, ichthyosis, ISIS, Limosis, Marmorosis, Mathesis, Metachrosis, Metemptosis, Metensomatosis, Morosis, Morphosis, Myopsis, Myosis, Mysis, Narcosis, Necrobiosis, Necrosis, Neurosis, Ochlesis, Osmidrosis, osmosis, osteoclasis, Osteoporosis, Osteosclerosis, Ostosis, Paracentesis, Paraphimosis, paremptosis, Parostosis, Pedesis. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-e-i-i-l-p-r-s-s-s-t"
	-1 letter: patissiers, serialists, sparsities, spiritless, spritsails.
	-2 letters: epistasis, patissier, pilasters, plaisters, prissiest, psaltries, satirises, serialist, spritsail, strapless.
	-3 letters: assister, epitasis, parities, pastises, pastless, pastries, persalts, persists, piasters, piastres, pilaster, pitiless, plaister, plaiters, plasters, prissies, psalters, raspiest, realists, reptilia, resplits, saltiers, saltires, satirise, silesias, sparsest, spiriest, staplers, starless, traipses, trespass.
	-4 letters: airiest, airless, aplites, artless, asepsis.
	Words containing the letters "a-e-i-i-l-p-r-s-s-s-t"
	+2 letters: spiritualness.
	+4 letters: legislatorships, painterlinesses, pictorialnesses, spiritualnesses, superspecialist.
	+5 letters: processabilities, supersexualities, superspecialists.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.