platelet
n.a tiny piece of a blood cell that helps your blood stop bleeding when you get a cut. It sticks together to form a clot and protect the wound.
n.a small, colorless, disc-shaped cell fragment in the blood that is involved in blood clotting. It functions by aggregating at the site of an injury to form a plug and initiate the coagulation cascade.
“The platelet helps your blood stop flowing after a small cut.”
“When you cut your skin, platelets in your blood travel to the site to form a clot and prevent further blood loss.”
“A deficiency in platelets can lead to excessive bleeding, as the body lacks the necessary components to form a stable clot following vascular injury.”
From plate + -let.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.