Wordnet 3.0
NOUN (1)
1.
a system (including the thymus and bone marrow and lymphoid tissues) that protects the body from foreign substances and pathogenic organisms by producing the immune response;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
immune system \im*mune" sys"tem\, n. (Biol.)
The complex of cells, cellular processes, and substances
within and diffused throughout an organism which allow the
organism to counteract or destroy noxious foreign substances
introduced into the body, destroy infectious agents such as
bacteria and viruses, destroy malignant cells, and remove
cellular debris, thus protecting the organism against many of
the potentially harmful external agents and internal events
that could lead to sickness or death. The system has numerous
interacting components, including circulating antibodies,
antibody-producing cells, white blood cells and lymphokines,
lymph tissue and lymph nodes, and stem cells which may
differentiate into other types of cell, together with the
thymus and spleen. The system is responsible for the
phenomenon of immunity[3]. See also immunoglobulin and
antibody.
[PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
immune system
n 1: a system (including the thymus and bone marrow and lymphoid
tissues) that protects the body from foreign substances and
pathogenic organisms by producing the immune response