lymph

See also: lymph-

English

Alternative forms

• lymphe (rare, archaic)

Etymology

Borrowing from French lymphe and/or Latin lympha (“clear water”), from Ancient Greek νῠ́μφη (númphē, “bride; spring water”). Doublet of nymph.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɪmf/, [lɪmpf]

  • Audio:

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪmf

Noun

lymph (usually uncountable, plural lymphs)

1. (obsolete, literary) Pure water.
   1. (archaic, botany) The sap of plants.
3. (physiology) A colourless, watery, coagulable bodily fluid which bathes the tissues and is carried by the lymphatic system into the bloodstream; it resembles blood plasma in containing white blood cells and especially lymphocytes but normally few red blood cells and no platelets.
   1. (immunology) The discharge from a sore, inflammation etc.
      • 2000, JG Ballard, Super-Cannes, Fourth Estate 2011, page 268:

        She lay face-down, an infected puncture point on the inside of her thigh oozing a faint lymph.

Derived terms

• cytolymph
• endolymph
• haemolymph, hemolymph
• karyolymph
• lymph gland
• lymphlike
• lymphlined
• lymph-, lympho-
• lymph node
• lymph vessel
• lymphy
• neurolymph
• perilymph

 

Related terms

• lymphatic
• nymph

Translations

fluid carried by the lymphatic system

• Afrikaans: limf
• Arabic: لِمْف m (limf)
• Armenian: ավիշ (hy) (aviš)
• Bulgarian: лимфа (bg) f (limfa)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: limfa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 淋巴 (lam⁴ baa¹)

  Mandarin: 淋巴 (zh) (línbā)

• Czech: míza (cs) f
• Danish: lymfe (da) c
• Dutch: lymfe (nl) f
• Esperanto: limfo
• Finnish: imuneste (fi), lymfa (fi)
• French: lymphe (fr) f
• Georgian: ლიმფა (limpa)
• German: Lymphe (de) f
• Greek: λύμφη (el) f (lýmfi), λέμφος (el) f (lémfos)
• Hebrew: לימפה (he) f (límfa)
• Hindi: लसीका (hi) f (lasīkā)
• Hungarian: nyirok (hu)
• Icelandic: vessi m, sogæðavökvi m
• Indonesian: limfa (id)
• Irish: limfe f
• Italian: linfa (it) f
• Japanese: リンパ液 (ja) (リンパえき, rinpa-eki)
• Kazakh: лимфа (limfa)
• Khmer: ទឹករងៃ (tɨk rɔngɨy)
• Korean: 림프 (ko) (rimpeu)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: lîmf

• Latin: lympha f
• Macedonian: лимфа f (limfa)
• Malayalam: ലിംഫ് (limphŭ)
• Maori: waitinana, wētaikiri
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: лимфа (limfa), тунгалаг (mn) (tungalag)

  Mongolian: ᠲᠤᠩᠭᠠᠯᠠᠭ (tungɣalag)

• Nepali: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lymfe m

  Nynorsk: lymfe f

• Ottoman Turkish: لنفا (lenfa)
• Persian: لنف (fa)
• Polish: chłonka (pl) f, limfa (pl) f
• Portuguese: linfa (pt) f
• Romanian: limfă (ro)
• Russian: ли́мфа (ru) f (límfa)
• Slovak: miazga f
• Spanish: linfa (es) f
• Swedish: lymfa (sv) c
• Thai: น้ำเหลือง (th) (nám-lʉ̌ʉang)
• Tibetan: ཆུ་སེར (chu ser)
• Turkish: ak kan (tr), lenf (tr)
• Vietnamese: bạch huyết (vi) (白血)
• Welsh: gwaedlyn m

References

• “lymph”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “lymph”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.