ingest

Ingest is a verb meaning to take something into the body by swallowing, or to absorb substances through a surface. The related noun ingestion denotes the act or process of taking in material. The term comes from the Latin ingere meaning to bring in or bear in, and entered English with senses related to intake and internal exposure.

In biology, ingestion describes the intake of food or other matter by living organisms, typically by swallowing. In humans and many animals, ingestion is followed by digestion and absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. In toxicology and medicine, ingestion is one route of exposure to chemicals or pathogens; dose and substance determine health effects.

In data management and information technology, ingestion refers to the process of importing data from source systems into a target system such as a data warehouse or data lake. Data ingestion can be real-time (streaming) or batch-based, and may include steps such as extraction, validation, transformation, and loading (ETL or ELT).

In media and content workflows, ingestion is used to describe importing media assets, metadata, and related files into a content management system or archive. The term emphasizes preparation for processing, storage, search, and reuse. In ecology and environmental science, ingestion can refer to animals consuming particulate matter, including pollutants, which has implications for exposure and ecosystem health.