transplant

transplant — verb

1. to remove a living thing from the place or body where it is growing or located a

1.verbtransitive / intransitiveB2
Definition

to remove a living thing from the place or body where it is growing or located and establish it in a new position or body so it can continue living

Example

Nadia's doctors transplanted a healthy kidney into her body within days of finding a donor.

transitive: transplant + [organ] + into + [recipient]

The Tan family transplanted a young cherry tree from the backyard to the front garden.

transplant + [plant] + from...to...

Common collocations
  • transplant an organ
  • transplant cells
  • transplant a plant
  • transplant seedlings
  • transplant successfully
  • transplant well
Synonyms
  • transfer

    broader — can mean any kind of movement; does not carry the sense of regrowing or healing in a new place

  • relocate

    used for people or organizations moving; less common for plants or organs

  • replant

    specific to plants being put back into soil; narrower than transplant

  • graft

    specifically about attaching living tissue surgically, often onto the same body or plant

Antonyms
  • remove

    to take something out without putting it somewhere else

  • extract

    to pull out, often used for organs during donation

Grammar Patterns

transplant + noun + from/into/to

transplant + adverb (well/easily)

Usage Note

The subject is usually a person (doctor, gardener) or a team; the object is the thing being moved (organ, plant, tissue). The intransitive form describes how easily something can be moved: 'this shrub transplants well'.

Common Mistakes

The doctor transferred a kidney into the patient.
The doctor transplanted a kidney into the patient.
'transfer' means to move generally (like to another hospital); 'transplant' specifically means to put into a new body or growing site.
We transplanted the office to a new building.
We relocated the office to a new building.
'transplant' is used for living things or body parts, not for inanimate objects or organizations in everyday English.

transplant — noun

Word family

  • transplantation
    nounC1
  • transplanter
    nounC1
  • transplantable
    adjectiveC2
  • transplanting
    nounB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

These four words overlap with 'transplant' but differ in scope and domain. 'Transfer' is the broadest — it covers moving anything (people, files, money, calls) between locations, without the idea of continued life or growth in the new place. 'Relocate' applies mainly to people, businesses, or entire facilities moving permanently; it is rarely used for plants or organs. 'Replant' is specific to gardening and agriculture: taking a plant out of the ground and putting it back into soil elsewhere — it never applies to body parts. 'Graft' is the most specialised: in medicine it means attaching skin, bone, or tissue surgically, often from one part of the body to another; in gardening it means joining a shoot onto a rooted stem. For example: 'The gardener replanted the rose bush after the storm' suggests putting it back into soil, while 'The surgeon grafted skin from the patient's thigh onto the burned arm' describes a precise surgical attachment, not a whole-organ move.

transferrelocate ↗replantgraft

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • transplant surgery
  • transplant waiting list
  • organ transplant
  • transplant rejection

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinEnglish

The word 'transplant' comes from Latin 'transplantare', which was formed by joining 'trans-' meaning 'across' and 'plantare' meaning 'to plant'. It was first used in English around the 1400s for moving plants from one place in the ground to another. By the 1700s, doctors began using it for moving tissue and organs between bodies.