Relating to or characterized by cell fragmentation or the breaking apart of cells into smaller pieces.
From Greek 'klasma' (fragment) + 'kytos' (cell) + '-ic' (relating to). The term combines the Greek root for 'breaking' with the biological suffix for cells, evolving in 19th-century medical terminology to describe cellular degradation.
This word reveals how scientists name disease processes by literally describing what's happening under the microscope—when your immune cells are breaking themselves apart, pathologists had to coin a term for it, and Greek roots gave them the perfect building blocks.
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