ingestion
Meaning of ingestion: Swallowing food, a medication, or a harmful substance by mouth is called ingestion, a term used both in nutrition and in poisoning evaluations.
Definition of ingestion
Ingestion is the act of taking a substance into the body through the mouth, most commonly used to describe eating and drinking as well as swallowing medications. The word is also used specifically in the context of an unintended or harmful exposure, such as the ingestion of a toxic substance, a foreign object, or an excessive amount of a medication.
In a poisoning or overdose evaluation, the timing, amount, and specific substance ingested are important details, since they influence what symptoms might be expected and what monitoring or treatment may be needed. Ingestion is distinguished from other routes by which a substance can enter the body, such as inhalation, injection, or absorption through the skin, each of which can produce a different pattern of effects for the same substance.
The word is also used in a broader biological sense to describe how cells take in material, as in the ingestion of bacteria by certain immune cells.
Used in a sentence
The patient was brought to the emergency department after an accidental ingestion of a household cleaning product.
Good to know
The route of exposure changes how a substance behaves in the body, so an ingestion is evaluated differently from the same substance absorbed through the skin or inhaled, even when the amount involved is similar.
Word origin
Where “ingestion” comes from
From Latin ingerere, meaning "to carry in" or "to introduce," formed from in- ("into") and gerere ("to carry").