kidney
n. countablen. one of two bean-shaped organs in your body. Your kidneys clean your blood and remove waste by making urine.
n. one of a pair of bean-shaped organs in vertebrates that filters waste products from the blood and excretes them, along with water, as urine.
A kidney transplant can save a person's life.
Doctors monitor kidney function in patients with high blood pressure, as the condition can cause long-term damage.
The intricate network of nephrons within each kidney is responsible for filtering metabolic waste from the bloodstream while reabsorbing essential substances.
From Middle English kedney, kydeney, from earlier kidnēre, kidenēre (“kidney”), of obscure origin and formation. Probably a compound consisting of Middle English kid, quid (“belly, womb”), from Old English cwiþ, cwiþa (“belly, womb, stomach”) + Middle English nēre (“kidney”), from Old English nēora (“kidney”), from Proto-West Germanic neurō, from Proto-Germanic neurô (“kidney”), from Proto-Indo-European negʷʰr- (“kidney”). If so, then related to dialectal English near (“kidney”), Scots nere, neir (“kidney”), Saterland Frisian Njuure (“kidney”), Dutch nier (“kidney”), German Niere (“kidney”), Danish nyre (“kidney”), Norwegian nyre (“kidney”), Swedish njure (“kidney”), Ancient Greek νεφρός (nephrós). Alternate etymology traces the first element to Old English cydde (“sack, belly, scrotum”), from Proto-Germanic kuddijā (“sack”) as the terms for testicle and kidney were often interchangeable in Germanic (compare Old High German nioro (“kidney", also "testicle”), Old Swedish vig-niauri (“testicle”)). More at codpiece.
Often used in compound nouns, such as 'kidney stone', 'kidney failure', or 'kidney bean'.