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

With little commonality between the two factions, politics has metastasized into a winner-takes-all where, ultimately, both sides lose. —Charlie Campbell, Time, 4 Apr. 2025

So there is no deep corporate investment in reducing head count at random federal agencies, and there is plenty of corporate angst about what DOGE might mean for the specific kinds of private-sector power that have metastasized all around Washington. —Ross Douthat, Mercury News, 25 Mar. 2025

The ordinariness of him was supposed to be about how this violence and feeling had metastasized and spread all over the place. —Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Mar. 2025

Her cancer had recently metastasized all over her body. —Glenn Garner, Deadline, 28 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1907, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for metastasize

• actualize
• antagonize
• apologise
• apologize
• capitalize
• categorize
• characterize
• commercialize
• conceptualize
• contrariwise
• criminalize
• decentralize

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