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digestion

UK/daɪˈd͡ʒɛst͡ʃən/US/daɪˈd͡ʒɛst͡ʃən/
nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,216 of 15,258neutral

Digestion is the process of the body breaking food down for fuel. Aid digestion, poor digestion, after digestion.

It begins in the mouth with saliva, continues in the stomach with acid, and does most of its work in the small intestine, where enzymes and bile break food into molecules small enough to absorb. The whole passage takes a day or two. Figuratively, digestion means taking in and understanding information. Note digest, digestive; and that the word displaced an older English use of melting.

Definitions of digestion

  1. 1noundigestionThe process of the body breaking food down.B1+

    “Digestion takes about a day and a half.”

digestion is a bodily process.

Where it comes from

Latin digestio comes from digerere, to separate or arrange — dis plus gerere, to carry. Digest, register and gesture come from the same carrying.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *h₂eǵ-

  2. Old French

    digestion

  3. English, today

    digestion

From Old French digestion. Partly displaced native melting.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Body & Health

Practise this word

digestion in the wild

  • The main function of the ileum is to absorb vitamin B12, bile salts, and whatever products of digestion were not absorbed by the jejunum.

    Small intestine

  • The term mechanical digestion refers to the physical breakdown of large pieces of food into smaller pieces which can subsequently be accessed by digestive enzymes.

    Digestion

  • In chemical digestion, enzymes break down food into the small compounds that the body can use.

    Digestion

  • The enzymes found in saliva are essential in beginning the process of digestion of dietary starches and fats.

    Saliva

  • Digestive enzymes take part in the chemical process of digestion, which follows the mechanical process of digestion.

    Digestive enzyme

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • indigestion