capillary
capillary — noun
1. the smallest type of blood vessel in the body, connecting the arteries to the ve
the smallest type of blood vessel in the body, connecting the arteries to the veins, with walls thin enough for oxygen and nutrients to pass into nearby cells.
When you exercise, the capillaries in your muscles widen to let more blood flow through.
capillary + singular generic article
Dr. Okafor studied how damaged capillaries affect healing after a skin injury.
capillary + plural for body part context
The walls of a capillary are one cell thick, so oxygen passes through easily.
High blood pressure can cause tiny capillaries in the eye to burst.
Red blood cells travel through capillaries one by one because the tubes are so narrow.
- microvessel
more technical; used mainly in medical research writing
文法句型
capillary + verb
capillary + of + body part
用法筆記
This sense almost always appears in the plural (capillaries) because a single capillary rarely works alone — they form networks throughout the body.
常見錯誤
capillary — adjective
1. extremely thin and narrow, like a hair; describing a tube or passage that has an
extremely thin and narrow, like a hair; describing a tube or passage that has an extremely narrow inner opening, through which liquid can barely pass.
The thermometer has a capillary tube so fine that you need a magnifying lens to read it.
attributive: capillary + noun (tube)
Capillary pores in certain types of rock allow water to rise slowly toward the surface.
A thin capillary crack in the window spread across the glass after the cold night.
The capillary grooves on the surface channel ink from the pen's reservoir to the tip.
Ink moves through the capillary gap between glass plates by surface tension, not gravity.
文法句型
capillary + noun
用法筆記
Used almost exclusively before a noun (attributive position). Do not use predicatively (*'The tube is capillary'). The synonym 'hair-thin' works in everyday conversation; 'capillary' is reserved for formal or technical writing.