white blood cell

noun

: any of the blood cells that are colorless, lack hemoglobin, contain a nucleus, and include the lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils

called also leukocyte, white blood corpuscle, white cell

compare red blood cell

Examples of white blood cell in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For example, when triggered, blood samples from smokers (current and former) released more signaling proteins called interleukins than the blood of nonsmokers—a warning sign that their white blood cells were kicking into overdrive. —Celia Ford, WIRED, 14 Feb. 2024

Too few red blood cells and a person develops anemia, for example, and too many white blood cells can lead to leukemia. —Megan Molteni, STAT, 22 Jan. 2024

Why Another Approved Medication Matters An EoE patient’s white blood cells build in the esophagus, causing damage and inflammation. —Kayla Hui, Verywell Health, 23 Feb. 2024

When inflammation and white blood cells fill the area, the lungs become opaque and more white on the reading, Offit explains. —Tara Haelle, Scientific American, 19 Dec. 2023

In January, a Philadelphia jury ordered Bayer to pay a staggering $2.3 billion in a lawsuit filed by a man diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that targets white blood cells, after using Roundup for two decades. —Randall Chase, Quartz, 1 Mar. 2024

Lymphocytes are white blood cells within the immune system.1 Though the two blood cancers bear slightly similar names, the two differ. —Barbara Brody, Health, 9 Nov. 2023

Ancrum for some time had battled multiple myeloma, a cancer that forms in the white blood cells. —Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 11 Feb. 2024

First-line immune defenders, like neutrophils, need to be replaced after just four to eight hours, platelets can last a week, red blood cells up to four months, and some white blood cells, like memory B cells, live for decades. —Megan Molteni, STAT, 22 Jan. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1852, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

white blood cell

noun

: a colorless blood cell (as a lymphocyte) that lacks hemoglobin and contains a nucleus

called also leukocyte, white blood corpuscle, white cell, white corpuscle

Medical Definition

white blood cell

noun

: any of the blood cells of the immune system that are colorless, lack hemoglobin, contain a nucleus, and include the lymphocytes, monocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils along with their precursors and derivatives (as macrophages) : leukocyte

—abbreviation WBC

called also white blood corpuscle, white cell, white corpuscle

compare red blood cell