Plasma

How to spell plasma

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce plasma

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does plasma mean?

1. nounThe clear, pale yellow fluid part of blood in which the cells are suspended.
2. nounAn ionized gas regarded as a distinct state of matter, made of free electrons and charged particles.

Plasma in a sentence

• The donor centre separates the plasma from the red cells before storage.

• The sun is a vast ball of glowing plasma held together by gravity.

• Doctors transfused plasma to help the patient's blood clot properly.

• The laboratory heated the gas until it became a plasma of charged particles.

Where does plasma come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes straight from the Greek plasma, which meant 'something molded or formed' and was built on the verb plassein, 'to shape or to mold'. The same root gives us 'plastic', 'plaster', and 'protoplasm', all of which carry the idea of pliable, shaped matter. It first entered scientific English in the early 1700s in the general sense of a formed substance, and by the mid 1800s physiologists had adopted it for the clear, fluid part of blood in which the cells are suspended. In the twentieth century physicists borrowed the same word for the ionized, gas-like 'fourth state of matter', because that diffuse, shapeable medium reminded them of the formless fluid sense. The spelling stays close to the Greek original, so the silent ending is simply -ma plus the Latinized -a, with no doubled letters to worry about.

How the word is built

• plasm (from Greek plasma: something molded or formed)
• -a (noun ending)