bile
Meaning of bile: Bile is a liver-made digestive fluid, concentrated in the gallbladder, whose components break fat into smaller droplets for more efficient digestion.
Definition of bile
Bile is a fluid produced continuously by the liver and stored and concentrated between meals in the gallbladder, a small pouch beneath the liver. When food, particularly fat, enters the small intestine, the gallbladder contracts and releases stored bile through a duct into the intestine.
Bile contains bile acids and bile salts, cholesterol, and bilirubin, a yellow pigment produced from the breakdown of old red blood cells. Its bile acids act like a detergent, breaking large fat droplets into smaller ones so that digestive enzymes can act on them more efficiently, a process called emulsification.
Beyond aiding fat digestion, bile is also the main route by which the body eliminates excess cholesterol and bilirubin. Bilirubin within bile gives stool its typical brown color, and conditions that block the normal flow of bile can cause pale stool, dark urine, and jaundice, a yellowing of the skin and eyes.
Used in a sentence
Imaging was obtained to evaluate for a blockage of bile flow after the patient developed jaundice.
Good to know
Blocked bile flow can be recognized by pale stool and dark urine alongside jaundice, since bile is the normal route by which the body eliminates bilirubin, and these features distinguish an obstruction of bile flow from other causes of jaundice.
Word origin
Where “bile” comes from
Formed from Latin bilis, meaning bile.