Plasmolyzing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Causing a plant cell to shrink as water leaves it and the cytoplasm pulls away from the rigid cell wall
2. Drawing water out of a plant cell so that its membrane detaches from the surrounding wall and the cell contracts
3. Making a cell lose water through osmosis until its protoplast contracts away from the cell wall in a process

Etymology: Plasmolyzing is the present participle of "plasmolyze," a biology term for the shrinking of a plant cell when its water drains out through the cell membrane. The verb is built from "plasma," in the biological sense of the living contents inside a cell, and the Greek-derived suffix "-lyze," from "lysis," meaning loosening or breaking apart. Put together, the sense is that the cell's protoplasm is being loosened from its wall as water leaves. The concept behind the word is the reverse of what happens in a swollen, firm plant cell, where water presses the membrane against the rigid cell wall. Placed in a strong salt or sugar solution, the cell loses water by osmosis, and the protoplast pulls away from the wall. Biologists use this visible retreat to study how water moves across membranes.