blood-serum

IPA/blˈʌdsˈɛɹəm/
IPA/blˈʌdsˈɛɹəm/

blood-serum — noun

1. The pale yellow liquid left in blood after it forms a clot and the proteins that

1.nounB2
Definition

The pale yellow liquid left in blood after it forms a clot and the proteins that cause clotting are no longer part of it.

Example

The nurse sent Jin's blood-serum sample to the lab for a hormone test.

blood-serum sample for lab testing

After the clot formed, only clear blood serum remained in the glass tube.

remained after the clot formed

Common collocations
  • blood-serum sample
  • blood-serum level
  • blood-serum test
  • separate blood serum
  • blood-serum protein
Synonyms
  • serum

    the usual shorter form once it is already clear that the liquid comes from blood

  • plasma

    related but not the same; plasma still contains the proteins that help blood clot

Grammar Patterns

blood-serum sample

measure [substance] in blood serum

separate blood serum from a clot

Usage Note

Usually seen in medical or laboratory writing. Many texts write the term as two words, 'blood serum', and once the context is clear they often shorten it further to simply 'serum'.

Common Mistakes

Blood serum still contains the clotting proteins.
Blood serum is the liquid left after the clotting proteins are removed.
if those proteins are still present, the correct term is 'plasma', not 'blood serum'.

Etymology

Old EnglishLatinEnglish

This compound joins 'blood', from Old English, with 'serum', a Latin word for a watery liquid. It names the part of blood left after clotting, and medical writing often prefers the open form 'blood serum' over the hyphenated spelling.