Category:Contractility

Con`trac*til"i*ty, n.

1. The quality or property by which bodies shrink or contract.

2. (Physiol.)

Defn: 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.