What does resected mean?
Resected is the past tense and past participle of resect, a formal medical verb meaning to cut out or remove tissue, an organ, or a tumour by surgery. It often appears in surgical and pathological reports: a specimen may be described as "the resected tissue," while a clinician may write that a growth "was resected." The word can also function as an adjective, as in "the resected margin." Although "removed" is broader and "excised" is close, resected specifically evokes surgical cutting and therefore belongs chiefly to clinical and biomedical language. It is not normally used for routine extraction, and it should not be confused with dissected, which means cut apart for detailed examination. Learning resected helps readers interpret operative notes, pathology findings, and research descriptions, where the distinction between removal and mere examination may be important.
To remove a body part, tissue, or lesion by cutting it out surgically.
"The surgeon resected the growth."
Used chiefly in medical, surgical, and pathology contexts; the simple past and past participle have the same form.
Of tissue, a specimen, or a body part: surgically cut out or removed.
"The resected tissue showed no evidence of malignancy."
Common in clinical reports and biomedical literature.
Resected comes from Latin for "cut back"—a surgical origin hiding in plain sight.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of resected
Resected is the English past tense and past participle of resect. The word derives from Latin resecare, formed from re- ("back" or "again") and secare ("to cut"), with the Latin past participle resectus underlying the English form. The same Latin cutting root also underlies words such as section, secant, and dissect.
Related word forms
How resected is actually used
This is formal medical and biomedical language, especially common in surgical notes, pathology reports, and clinical research. It usually implies deliberate removal by cutting rather than loss through injury or disease.
Easily confused with resected
Dissected means cut apart to examine or analyze, whereas resected normally means surgically removed from the body.