biopsy

BY-ahp-see

meaning in plain English

Taking a small piece of living tissue or fluid from the body to check for disease.

for example

The doctor said we need to do a biopsy to see if the lump is cancer or not.

A biopsy is like cutting a tiny piece of skin or tissue to look at under a microscope. Imagine scraping a little paint from a wall to check if the color is right—except here, it’s a piece of your body being checked for problems.