homeostasis
5 synonyms for homeostasis, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — The process by which a living body keeps its internal conditions, such as temperature, water level and blood chemistry, steady despite changes outside it.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. noun
The process by which a living body keeps its internal conditions, such as temperature, water level and blood chemistry, steady despite changes outside it.
“Sweating and shivering are both ways the body maintains homeostasis.”
2. noun figurative
A tendency in any system, such as an economy, an ecosystem or an organisation, to return to a stable state after being disturbed.
“The team drifted back to its old routines, a kind of organisational homeostasis.”
How to use homeostasis
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
Technical; standard in biology, medicine and psychology, and increasingly used loosely for any self-correcting system.
Etymology
From Greek homoios meaning 'similar' and stasis meaning 'standing still'.
Full origin of homeostasis →