metastasize

• metastasise (non-Oxford British spelling), metastatize (rare)

From metastasis +‎ -ize (suffix forming verbs meaning to do things denoted by the adjectives or nouns the suffix is attached to).^[1] Metastasis is a learned borrowing from Late Latin metastasis (“(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”), and from its etymons Koine Greek μετάστασις (metástasis, “(rhetoric) rapid or sudden transition from one argument, point, or topic to another”) and Ancient Greek μετάστασις (metástasis, “change; removal; (medicine) movement of disease, pain, etc., from one part of the body to another”), from μετᾰ- (metă-, prefix denoting change in condition or position) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meth₂) + στᾰ́σῐς (stắsĭs, “condition, state; position”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”)), modelled after μεθιστάναι (methistánai, “to change; to remove”).^[2]

The use of French métastase (“metastasis”) to refer to the spread of cancer was coined in 1829 by the French gynecologist Joseph Récamier (1774–1852).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɪˈtæstəsaɪz/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /məˈtæstəˌsaɪz/
• Hyphenation: me‧ta‧stas‧ize

metastasize (third-person singular simple present metastasizes, present participle metastasizing, simple past and past participle metastasized) (American spelling, Oxford British English)

1. (transitive)
   1. (medicine, specifically oncology) Of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to form a metastasis (“a secondary focus away from the primary site”) in (a body organ).
      • 2013 May 11, Jaclyn Cosgrove, “Fostering hope: Doctor learns about being a mother to child with cancer”, in The Oklahoman‎^[1], Oklahoma City, Okla.: Oklahoma Pub. Co., →OCLC, archived from the original on 2 February 2026:

        "I remember the first time he woke up throwing up, and my first thought wasn't, 'Oh he has the stomach flu,'" she [Rene McNall-Knapp] said. "It was, 'Oh, it's gone to his brain, and it's metastasized his brain, and he's throwing up because of that.'"

   2. (chiefly US, figurative) To disseminate or spread (something, often an undesirable thing), especially in a destructive manner.
      • 2019 April 26, Richard Lawson, “Why Critics Worry about Criticism”, in Radhika Jones, editor, Vanity Fair‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2 April 2023:

        In a broader sense, criticism as a form is in trouble. And celebrities like [Ariana] Grande, like [Michael] Che, like [Olivia] Munn, who swat at it to the delight of their fans, concerningly seem to metastasize the problem.

2. (intransitive)
   2. (medicine, specifically oncology) Of a disease (especially cancer) or a tumour: to undergo metastasis (“spreading from a primary site to one or more other sites in the body”).
      • 1988 October, Margaret Atwood, chapter 21, in Cat's Eye (A Seal Book), Toronto, Ont.: McClelland-Bantam, published October 1989, →ISBN, page 119:

        On other screens are closeups of skin pores, before and after, details of regimes for everything, your hands, your neck, your thighs. Your elbows, especially your elbows: aging begins at the elbows and metastasizes.

      • 2001, David Lodge, chapter 28, in Thinks … […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Viking Penguin, →ISBN, page 276:

        Your lump could be a secondary cancer metastasized from the bowel. I had a patient like that not long ago.

   3. (chiefly US, figurative) Of a thing, often one which is undesirable: to disseminate or spread, especially in a destructive manner.
      • 2020 April 12, Kathryn Olivarius, “The dangerous history of immunoprivilege”, in The New York Times‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 January 2026:

        Late last month, a conservative website called The Federalist published an article advocating that healthy, young Americans deliberately infect themselves with Covid-19, […] If enough Americans expose themselves to the virus and become immune, the theory goes, the country would have a mobilized cadre of immune citizens. […] The article was widely discredited by public health experts and economists, as both logically dubious and ethically specious, but such thinking has already metastasized.

• metastasis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia