vivisection
noun
Did you know?
Vivisection includes the Latin root sect, meaning "cut". The Greek physician Galen, who lived during the 2nd century A.D., practiced vivisection on live monkeys and dogs to learn such things as the role of the spinal cord in muscle activity and whether veins and arteries carry air or blood; his findings formed the basis of medical practice for more than a thousand years. Vivisection continues to be used in drug and medical research today, but often in secret, since it makes most people very uncomfortable and some groups are violently opposed to it.
Examples of vivisection in a Sentence
Bob Fischer, The Conversation, 4 Apr. 2025
There certainly are other critiques of Trumpian corruption to be seen on Broadway this season, but few speak so eloquently as Mamet’s vivisection from 1983.
—Greg Evans, Deadline, 31 Mar. 2025
The Dangers of Animal Experimentation—for Doctors Livia Gershon Nineteenth-century opponents of vivisection warned that the practice could make researchers and physicians callous toward all living creatures.
—Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 16 May 2018
Unit 731 is also believed to have performed vivisections and frozen prisoners to death in tests of endurance.
—Mari Yamaguchi, USA TODAY, 24 July 2023
See All Example Sentences for vivisection
Cite this Entry
“Vivisection.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vivisection. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
vivisection
noun
Share