programmed cell death

1. 1.

   a type of cell death in which the cell uses specialized cellular machinery to kill itself; a cell suicide mechanism that enables metazoans to control cell number and eliminate cells that threaten the animal's survival

   Synonymsapoptosiscaspase-mediated cell death

   Broadernecrobiosis

Questions about programmed cell death

What does programmed cell death mean?

programmed cell death means "a type of cell death in which the cell uses specialized cellular machinery to kill itself; a cell suicide mechanism that enables metazoans to control cell number and eliminate cells that threaten the animal's survival".

What is another word for programmed cell death?

Close synonyms include apoptosis, caspase-mediated cell death. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is programmed cell death a common word?

programmed cell death is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.