foreign bodies
Things that shouldn't
Foreign bodies are objects present where they don't belong, especially inside the human body.
Medical contexts dominate: a splinter in a finger, a bead lodged in a child's nose, shrapnel embedded in tissue.
The X-ray revealed a foreign body in the patient's esophagus.
The term emphasizes that something is intrusive and shouldn't be there—the body treats it as alien and often mounts an immune response.
Outside medicine, foreign bodies can describe any unwanted material contaminating a system: The engine failed due to foreign bodies in the fuel line.
- meteoritesExtraterrestrial rocks on Earth
- intruderUnauthorized person present
- splinterThin sharp fragment
- glass shardFragment of broken pane
- metal fragmentBroken piece of ore-based material
shrapnel · implant · bezoars · artifact · anomaly · microplastics · surgery · stent · suture · surgical removal · contaminant · invasive species · catheter · colonial influence · parasitic infection · keratitis · cultural appropriation · immigrant communities
- pet healthvet visit, checkup, checkups, vaccinations, rabies vaccination
- autopsy findingscause of death, manner of death, time of death, toxicology, histopathology
- bowel obstructionbowel obstruction, intestinal blockage, partial obstruction, obstruction, adhesions
- wound assessmentexudate, granulation, necrosis, slough, eschar
foreign bodiesoriginal equipment
foreign, bodies, foreigner, foreigners, foreignness, bodily, bodied, embody, embodied