Implant: Planting Something Inside the Body
An implant is a device placed inside the body. The verb also works for ideas, and the gardening image is right there in the word.
An implant is something placed inside the body and left there: a dental implant, a pacemaker, a cochlear implant. The word is agricultural — *in* plus *plant*, to set something into the ground — and English keeps that image when it talks about implanting an idea in someone's mind.
- A device placed in the body. *A cochlear implant.*
- To place something inside. *The chip is implanted under the skin.*
- To fix an idea in someone's mind. *The suggestion was implanted early.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | implant | A metal implant. |
| Verb | implant | Implant the device. |
| Past | implanted | Implanted last year. |
| Noun | implantation | Implantation of the embryo. |
| Related | transplant | A kidney transplant. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The dental implant replaces the root as well as the tooth.That is what distinguishes it from a bridge.
- A cochlear implant bypasses damaged parts of the ear.It stimulates the nerve directly.
- The idea was implanted years earlier.Figurative use, often about influence.
Implant or transplant?
- Implant — an artificial device placed in the body
- Transplant — living tissue moved from one body or place to another
- Prosthesis — an artificial part, usually external
- Graft — tissue moved to a new site, often the patient's own
- Explant — removal of an implant
From Medieval Latin *implantare*, to plant in, from *in* and *plantare*. The medical sense is nineteenth-century; the horticultural one is far older.
Implant or prosthesis?
An implant stays inside the body. A prosthesis usually replaces a missing part from outside, like an artificial limb.
Where is the stress?
The noun is IM-plant, the verb im-PLANT — the same pattern as record and present.