the nondirectional movement of an organism or cell in response to a stimulus, the rate of movement being dependent on the strength of the stimulus
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025
ki•ne•sis
(ki nē′sis, kī-),USA pronunciation n. [Physiol.]
-kinesis,
- Physiologythe movement of an organism in response to a stimulus, as light.
- Greek kí̄nēsis movement, equivalent. to kīnē-, verbid stem of kīneîn to move + -sis -sis
- 1900–05
-kinesis,
- a combining form with the general sense "movement, activity,'' used in the formation of compound words, often with the particular senses "reaction to a stimulus'' (photokinesis), "movement without an apparent physical cause'' (telekinesis), "activity within a cell'' (karyokinesis). Cf. -kinesia.
- Greek -kīnēsis; see kinesis
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'kinesis' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
-kinesia
- autokinesis
- chemokinesis
- cytokinesis
- diakinesis
- hyperanakinesia
- interkinesis
- karyokinesis
- kinesics
- kinesiology
- kinetic
- kinin
- ookinesis
- photokinesis
- psychokinesis
- pyrokinesis
- telekinesis