platelet

/ˈpleɪtlɪt/

/ˈpleɪɾlɪt/

Other forms: platelets

Platelets are tiny cell fragments that help your blood to clot. If you cut yourself, platelets clump together to slow the flow of blood and plug the cut.

Blood clots are your body's way of repairing and healing cuts and scrapes in your skin, and platelets are an essential part of the clotting process. They're colorless disks, pieces of cells with no nuclei, and they're formed in your bone marrow along with white and red blood cells. Doctors and scientists measure blood in microliters, tiny drops, and a healthy person has as many as 450,000 platelets in one microliter of blood.

Definitions of platelet

1. noun

   tiny bits of protoplasm found in vertebrate blood; essential for blood clotting
   synonyms: blood platelet, thrombocyte

   type of:

   living substance, protoplasm

   the substance of a living cell (including cytoplasm and nucleus)