metastasize

verb

me·​tas·​ta·​size mə-ˈta-stə-ˌsīz 

metastasized; metastasizing

intransitive verb

: to spread or grow by or as if by metastasis

died of lung cancer which had metastasized throughout his body

—G. P. Elliott

Examples of metastasize in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

However, individuals whose cancer has metastasized (spread beyond the uterus) have an average life expectancy of only 15 months with treatment. —Nick Blackmer, Verywell Health, 6 Sep. 2024

The withdrawal, such critics allege, allowed al Qaeda in Iraq to metastasize into ISIS and take control of nearly a third of Iraq’s territory, including Mosul, the country’s third-largest city. —Jon Finer, Foreign Affairs, 28 May 2019

Perhaps law enforcement officials imagined that the Internet’s public square is a messy democratic free-for-all that caters to the fringes of society but whose online screeds don’t metastasize into offline violence. —Nina Jankowicz, Foreign Affairs, 12 Jan. 2021

The community is cancerous and its toxicity has metastasized through social media with a rabid irrational hate over most projects. —Gieson Cacho, The Mercury News, 5 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1907, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

metastasize

verb

me·​tas·​ta·​size mə-ˈtas-tə-ˌsīz 

: to spread or grow by or as if by metastasis

Medical Definition

metastasize

intransitive verb

me·​tas·​ta·​size

variants also British metastasise

mə-ˈtas-tə-ˌsīz 

metastasized also British metastasised; metastasizing also British metastasising

: to spread by metastasis

… all ten were primary brain cancers; that is, they had originated in the brain, and not metastasized there from elsewhere in the body.

—Paul Brodeur, The New Yorker

metastasization noun

also British metastasisation

mə-ˌtas-tə-sə-ˈzā-shən