From Latin lysis, from Ancient Greek λύσις (lúsis, “a loosening”). Compare -lysis.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪsɪs/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Rhymes: -aɪsɪs

lysis

1. (architecture) A plinth or step above the cornice of the podium in an ancient temple.
2. (biochemistry)
   1. The breakdown of molecules into constituent molecules.
   2. The disintegration or destruction of cells.
3. (medicine, pathology) A gradual recovery from disease.

   Antonym: crisis

   • 1902, William James, “Lecture VIII: The Divided Self, and the Process of Its Unification”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature[…], New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co.[…], →OCLC, page 183:

     The older medicine used to speak of two ways, lysis and crisis, one gradual, the other abrupt, in which one might recover from a bodily disease.

• lyse
• -lysis

• Lissy, sylis

From the Ancient Greek λύσις (lúsis).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈly.sɪs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈliː.s̬is]

lysis f (genitive lysis or lyseōs or lysios); third declension

1. loosening
2. rupture (breaking away)

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem).

¹Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin.

• English: lysis

• “lysis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “lysis”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “lysis”, in The Perseus Project (1999), Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[1]
• “lysis”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “lysis”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
• “lysis”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly