Ingests

In general usage, ingest means to take into the body, typically by swallowing. The noun form ingest is uncommon, and the more common term is ingestion; when used, ingests may refer to substances that have been taken in or to instances of ingestion that have occurred. The word spans multiple domains, especially biology and information technology.

In biology and medicine, ingestion is the act of taking food or liquid into the mouth and beginning the digestive process. It contrasts with digestion, absorption, and elimination. In many animals, ingestion is followed by mastication, enzymatic breakdown, and transport through the digestive tract. The term is also used in toxicology and pharmacology to describe the administration route of substances.

In information technology, data ingestion describes the process of obtaining and importing data from source systems into a target repository, such as a data lake or data warehouse. Data ingestion can be batch or streaming: batch ingestion collects data at intervals, while streaming ingestion delivers data continuously in real time. Data ingestion may include extraction, transport, validation, normalization, and loading (ETL or ELT variants), as well as schema mapping, de-duplication, and metadata tagging. Robust ingestion pipelines address data quality, security, and lineage, and support idempotent processing and error handling. Common sources include databases, logs, files, APIs, and streaming platforms.

Related topics include ingestion in biology and data ingestion.