MEANING
The cutting or operating on a living animal for experimental or scientific purposes.
Use it for
A living body treated as an experimental object; scientific cruelty; a subject remaining alive during invasive proceduresMake the living status explicit without inventing details about anesthesia or method.
Words that belong together
- perform vivisection
- oppose vivisection
- vivisection laboratory
On the page
The notes described vivisection, not examination of a dead specimen.
She found a schedule of vivisection experiments in the locked office.
The story's laboratory pursued vivisection without concern for the animals' suffering.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- vivisection
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Usage notes
Primary category: horror. Living-subject experimentation is central; the word does not necessarily imply absence of anesthesia. Ethical and figurative uses need context. Usually uncountable in this sense; no routine plural. Derived/related family (not inflections): vivisect (verb), vivisectionist (noun).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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