vein
n. countablen. one of the small tubes in your body that carries blood back to your heart. It can also mean a thin line in a leaf, a rock, or even a specific style of writing.
n. a blood vessel that carries blood toward the heart; by extension, any distinct, branching channel or streak in a leaf, insect wing, or mineral deposit. Often used figuratively to describe a particular style, mood, or thematic strain in a piece of work.
The nurse found a vein in my arm to take blood.
The sculptor chose a piece of white marble with a deep purple vein running through the center.
The author's latest novel continues in a satirical vein, mocking the very social structures that his previous, more earnest works had attempted to defend.
From Middle English veyne, borrowed from Anglo-Norman veine, from Latin vēna (“a blood-vessel; vein; artery”) of uncertain origin. See vēna for more. Doublet of vena. Displaced native edre, from ǣdre (whence edder).
When used figuratively to mean 'style' or 'mood', it is frequently preceded by the preposition 'in' (e.g., 'in a similar vein').