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homeostasis

/ˌˈhoʊmiəˌstæsəs/
/həʊmiəʊˈsteɪsɪs/
IPA guide

Homeostasis is a word you learn in biology. It refers to a cell's home state — the way it wants to be, and should be if everything that regulates the cell is working.

Although seeing stasis inside the word homeostasis might make you think there's something static or still about it, there's not; homeostasis is only achieved through the running of complicated systems in the body that regulate metabolic activity. "Once all the poison had been flushed from the body, the patient's cells began again to maintain homeostasis. The patient's color returned and she was able to get out of bed."

Definitions of homeostasis
  1. noun
    (physiology) metabolic equilibrium actively maintained by several complex biological mechanisms that operate via the autonomic nervous system to offset disrupting changes
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    type of:
    equilibrium
    a stable situation in which forces cancel one another
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