Meaning & use
hepatic
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a nounmedicaltechnical
Of or affecting the liver.
Grammar: Placed before a noun: hepatic disease. In everyday talk people say liver instead.
Patterns
- hepatic disease
- hepatic function
Tests showed that the patient had hepatic damage.
The drug is broken down by hepatic enzymes.
Doctors monitored his hepatic function every month.
nouncountableold-fashionedmedical
A medicine or drug that acts on the liver.
Grammar: Old-fashioned and rare; the adjective is far more common.
The old physician prescribed a hepatic for the patient's yellow skin.
Herbal hepatics were once common in pharmacies.
nouncountablebiologytechnical
A liverwort, a small flat green plant that grows on damp ground.
Grammar: A botanical sense; the plant is more usually called a liverwort.
The botanist collected a hepatic from the wet rocks.
Hepatics grow in moist, shady woods.
Word forms
| plural | hepatics |
|---|
Common combinations
- hepatic artery
- The hepatic artery brings oxygen-rich blood to the liver.
- hepatic failure
- Hepatic failure can follow severe infection.
- hepatic disease
- The patient has chronic hepatic disease.
- hepatic function
- The test measures hepatic function.
- hepatic vein
- The hepatic vein carries blood away from the liver.
Synonyms and how they differ
- liver
- This is the plain everyday noun used as a modifier, as in liver disease, and is less technical than hepatic.
- hepatological
- This relates to the study of liver disease and is narrower than hepatic.
- hepatobiliary
- This covers the liver together with the bile system, so it is wider than hepatic.
Word family
- hepatitis noun
- an inflammation of the liver
- hepatology noun
- the branch of medicine dealing with the liver
- hepatologist noun
- a doctor who specializes in liver disease
- hepatocyte noun
- a main type of liver cell
Commonly confused: hepatic or hematic? hepatic or hectic?
hepatic vs hematic
Hematic relates to blood, whereas hepatic relates to the liver, though both are medical adjectives.
hepatic vs hectic
Hectic means very busy, and has no relation to the liver, though it looks somewhat similar.
Practice
The doctor was worried about the patient's ____ function, because blood tests suggested liver damage.
Choose one answer.
Hepatic relates to the liver. Renal refers to the kidneys, cardiac to the heart and pulmonary to the lungs.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hepatic”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.