How to Use peristalsis in a Sentence

peristalsis

noun
  • This motion mimics how our intestines and esophagus move food around our body — a process known as peristalsis.
    — James Vincent, The Verge, 30 Mar. 2018
  • This routine trains a competitive eater’s body to stop gastric peristalsis when gorging on food.
    — Currie Engel, Time, 4 July 2019
  • Remove the earthbound physics altogether, and all that’s left is the peristalsis.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 9 Apr. 2026
  • These contractions are called peristalsis.
    — Sarah Hudgens, Health, 6 Nov. 2025
  • This softens the stool and increases peristalsis (movement through the intestines).
    — Jennifer Lefton, Verywell Health, 16 Sep. 2025
  • The top squeezes, then the middle, then the bottom (this process is technically known as peristalsis), and this helps propel food through the organ.
    — Maggie O'Neill, Health.com, 29 Apr. 2020
  • These help trigger peristalsis, the undulating muscle contractions that help squeeze food through the gut.
    — Brenda Goodman, CNN, 8 Feb. 2023
  • In their back-and-forth manner, all technologies have been improving, even if the peristalsis of history is hard to follow.
    — Peter Rubin, Longreads, 14 Dec. 2022
  • The active ingredients senna and bisacodyl make the muscles in the intestines contract, which is called peristalsis.
    — Amber J. Tresca, Verywell Health, 21 Oct. 2024
  • This can help stimulate peristalsis, the wave-like muscular contractions that move food through the digestive tract.
    — Kristen Gasnick, Verywell Health, 24 June 2026
  • Part of this is due to peristalsis, the muscle contractions and relaxations in your colon shortly after eating or drinking.
    — Sherri Gordon, Health, 27 Mar. 2025
  • Fat innkeepers then use peristalsis to fill their burrows with water so that the mucous can trap the critters, like plankton, and bacteria that the water brings with it.
    — Daisy Hernandez, Popular Mechanics, 13 Dec. 2019
  • This stretching effect triggers the colon muscles to contract and relax rhythmically, a motion known as peristalsis.
    — Devineé Lingo, M.s., Health, 20 Nov. 2024
  • In fact, while your stomach will typically make writhing motions called peristalsis to move food along to the stomach, the competitive eater’s stomach remained more still.
    — Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes, 5 July 2021
  • In other mammals, the wavelike peristalsis of the intestinal muscles are consistent in all directions.
    — Tess Joosse, Science | AAAS, 27 Jan. 2021
  • Chewing gum can help get your gastrointestinal tract moving by improving peristalsis, the rhythmic muscle contractions of your intestines that push food through your system.
    — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 16 Dec. 2022
  • In order for your body to propel food through your digestive system, the muscles in your stomach and intestines are constantly contracting to push your food downward in a process called peristalsis .
    — Noelle Devoe, Seventeen, 26 Oct. 2017
  • But peristalsis instead of these rotational forces is gentler, and would allow fuel to be manufactured in one slow, continuous process, rather than in batches.
    — James Vincent, The Verge, 30 Mar. 2018
  • Adrenaline speeds up peristalsis, the contractions and constrictions of the intestines, while blood is diverted from the digestive system, which can cause nausea.
    — Charlotte Harpur, New York Times, 3 June 2026
  • Fall asleep and dream about being slowly forced, as if by some mechanized peristalsis, through the digestive tract of a huge synthetic worm that then deposits me into a lightless industrial kitchen.
    — Jay Katsir, The New Yorker, 9 Jan. 2025
  • While peristalsis—a muscle’s ability to contract and produce wavelike motions—helps move an object through the stretchy passageway, gravity is always lending a hand.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 9 Apr. 2026
  • The nervous-immune connection is intriguing in light of recent research suggesting that chemical cross talk between gut macrophages and nerve fibers can control peristalsis, the process that moves food through the digestive tract.
    — Esther Landhuis, Scientific American, 27 Mar. 2020
  • And thankfully, the pythonlike digestive process of peristalsis, which moves food and drink along in wavelike contractions from first swallow to final farewell, was likewise unimpeded by a zero-gravity environment.
    — Christian Millman, Discover Magazine, 29 Oct. 2015

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'peristalsis.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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