Hypertext Webster Gateway: "contractility"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Contractility \Con`trac*til"i*ty\, n.
1. The quality or property by which bodies shrink or
contract.
2. (Physiol.) The power possessed by the fibers of living
muscle of contracting or shortening.
Note: When subject to the will, as in the muscles of
locomotion, such power is called voluntary
contractility; when not controlled by the will, as in
the muscles of the heart, it is involuntary
contractility.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
contractility
n : the capability or quality of shrinking or contracting esp by
muscle fibers and even some other forms of living matter
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