# metabolism

> English word · Noun · IPA /mɪˈtab.ə.lɪz.əm/ · frequency rank #9,918

## Definitions
1. The chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.
2. The rate at which these processes occur for a given organism
3. The processes that maintain any dynamic system.

## Etymology
From Ancient Greek μεταβολή (metabolḗ, “change”) + -ism, from μεταβάλλω (metabállō, “to change, to alter”) + -η (-ē, action noun suffix).

## Easily confused with
- **metabolite** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/metabolism-vs-metabolite)
- **metabolic** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/metabolic-vs-metabolism)

## Common misspellings (15)
`emtabolism`, `meatbolism`, `metabbolism`, `metabloism`, `metaboilsm`, `metabolims`, `metabolismm`, `metabolissm`, `metabollism`, `metabolsim`, `metaoblism`, `metbaolism`, `mettabolism`, `mmetabolism`, `mteabolism`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/metabolism