Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun apoptosis

1 sense of apoptosis

Sense 1
apoptosis, programmed cell death, caspase-mediated cell death -- (a type of cell death in which the cell uses specialized cellular machinery to kill itself; a cell suicide mechanism that enables metazoans to control cell number and eliminate cells that threaten the animal's survival)
       => necrobiosis, cell death -- ((physiology) the normal degeneration and death of living cells (as in various epithelial cells))