capillary

English

Capillaries

Etymology

From Latin capillāris (“pertaining to the hair”), from capillus (“the hair, properly of the head”), from caput (“head”).

Pronunciation

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /kəˈpɪl.ə.ɹi/, /ˈkæpɪˌlɛɹi/
• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /kəˈpɪl.ə.ɹi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkæpəˌlɛri/, /ˈkæpɪˌlɛɹi/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Philippines) IPA^(key): /käˈpɪʎä.ɹi/, /käˈpɪʎä.ɾi/
• Hyphenation: cap‧il‧lar‧y
• Rhymes: -ɪləɹi

Adjective

capillary (comparative more capillary, superlative most capillary)

1. Resembling or pertaining to hair, especially in slenderness or fineness.
2. Of or pertaining to a narrow tube.
3. Of, relating to, or caused by surface tension.
4. Of or relating to capillaries in the body or to capillary action.

Derived terms

• alveolocapillary
• arteriocapillary
• capillaric
• capillarily
• capillaritis
• capillarization
• capillary bed
• capillary refill
• cerebrocapillary
• choriocapillary
• elastocapillary
• electrocapillary
• endocapillary
• exocapillary
• extracapillary
• intercapillary
• intracapillary
• juxtacapillary
• magnetocapillary
• megacapillary
• microcapillary
• midcapillary
• multicapillary
• nanocapillary
• neocapillary
• neurocapillary
• noncapillary
• optocapillary
• pericapillary
• polycapillary
• postcapillary
• precapillary
• pseudocapillary
• thermocapillary
• transcapillary
• vasocapillary
• venocapillary

Noun

capillary (plural capillaries)

1. (anatomy) Any of the small blood vessels (from 5 to 10 micrometres/micrometers (μm) in diameter) that connect arteries to veins (They are the smallest blood vessels in the body: they convey blood between the arterioles and venules).
2. (physics, chemistry) A tube or channel having a very small internal diameter, through which liquid can rise or be drawn by capillary action.

Derived terms

• capillarity
• capillary action
• capillary wave
• peritubular capillary

Translations

narrow tube

• Bulgarian: капиля́р (bg) m (kapiljár)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: hiusputki (fi)
• Hungarian: hajszálcső (hu), kapilláris (hu)
• Maori: ngongo rauangi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kapillar (no) n

  Nynorsk: kapillar n

• Russian: капилля́р (ru) m (kapilljár)
• Spanish: capilaria f

any of small blood vessels that connect arteries to veins

• Albanian: kapilar m
• Arabic: شُعَيْرَة دَمَوِيَّة f (suʕayra damawiyya)
• Armenian: մազանոթ (hy) (mazanotʻ)
• Azerbaijani: kapilyar
• Belarusian: капіля́р m (kapiljár), валасні́к m (valasník)
• Bengali: কৈশিক (bn) (kōiśik)
• Bulgarian: капиля́р (bg) m (kapiljár)
• Burmese: သွေးကြောမျှင် (my) (swe:krau:hmyang), အကြောမျှင် (my) (a.krau:hmyang)
• Catalan: capil·lar (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 微絲血管 / 微丝血管 (mei⁴ si¹ hyut³ gun²)

  Mandarin: 毛細管 / 毛细管 (zh) (máoxìguǎn), 微血管 (zh) (wēixuèguǎn, wēixiěguǎn), 毛細血管 / 毛细血管 (zh) (máoxìxuèguǎn, máoxìxiěguǎn)

• Czech: vlásečnice (cs) f, kapilára (cs) f
• Danish: kapillær c
• Dutch: haarvat (nl) n, capillair (nl) n
• Esperanto: kapilaro
• Estonian: kapillaar
• Finnish: hiussuoni (fi)
• French: capillaire (fr) m
• Georgian: კაპილარი (ḳaṗilari)
• German: Kapillare (de) f
• Greek: τριχοειδές αγγείο n (trichoeidés angeío)
• Gujarati: કેશવાહિની (keśvāhinī)
• Hebrew: נִים (he) m (nim)
• Hindi: केशिका (hi) f (keśikā)
• Hungarian: kapilláris (hu), hajszálér (hu)
• Icelandic: háræð (is) f
• Indonesian: kapiler (id)
• Italian: capillare (it) m, vaso capillare m
• Japanese: 毛細血管 (ja) (もうさいけっかん, mōsaikekkan), 毛管 (ja) (もうかん, mōkan), 毛細管 (ja) (もうさいかん, mōsaikan)
• Kazakh: капилляр (kapillär), қылтамыр (qyltamyr)
• Khmer: កេសនា (keesaʼnaa), កេសរ (km) (keesɑɑ)
• Korean: 모세관(毛細管) (ko) (mosegwan), 모세혈관(毛細血管) (ko) (mosehyeolgwan)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: mûlûleya xwînê (ku) f

• Kyrgyz: капилляр (kapillyar)
• Lao: ເສັ້ນເລືອດຝອຍ (sen lư̄at fǭi)
• Latvian: kapilārs (lv) m
• Lithuanian: kapiliaras m
• Macedonian: капила́р m (kapilár)
• Malay: kapilari (ms), rerambut (ms)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: хялгасан хоолой (xjalgasan xooloj), хялгасан судас (xjalgasan sudas)

• Navajo: atsʼoostsʼóóz
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kapillar (no) n

  Nynorsk: kapillar n

• Persian: مویرَگ (fa) (muyrag)
• Polish: kapilara f
• Portuguese: capilar (pt) m
• Romanian: vas capilar m or n, capilar (ro) m or n
• Russian: капилля́р (ru) m (kapilljár)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: капилар m

  Roman: kapilar m

• Slovak: vlásočnica f, kapilára f
• Slovene: kapilara f
• Spanish: capilar (es) m
• Swahili: kapilari
• Swedish: kapillär (sv) c
• Tagalog: lamuymoy, kapilaryo
• Tajik: капилляр (kapillyar)
• Thai: หลอดเลือดฝอย (lɔ̀ɔt-lʉ̂ʉat-fɔ̌i), เส้นเลือดฝอย (sêen-lʉ̂ʉat-fɔ̌i)
• Turkish: kılcal damar (tr), kapiler
• Turkmen: kapillýar
• Ukrainian: капіля́р m (kapiljár)
• Urdu: کیشکا f (keśikā)
• Uzbek: kapillyar (uz)
• Vietnamese: mao mạch (vi)
• Yiddish: אָדערל n (oderl)

See also

• artery
• circulatory system
• vein

Further reading

• “capillary”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “capillary”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.