Digestion
Etymology
From Latin "digestio", from "digerere" (to separate, distribute, dissolve), from "dis-" (apart) and "gerere" (to carry). The literal sense is a carrying-apart: digestion takes the whole of a meal and sorts it into parts the body can use.
noun · /dy-JES-chun/
The process by which the body breaks down food into absorbable components.
What it names
One specific stage of nourishment — the breaking-down — often conflated with the whole of how the body handles food.
Example
Heavy meals slowed her digestion, leaving her sluggish for hours after lunch.
Related idea
Digestion is the breaking down and absorbing of food; metabolism is the wider set of chemical reactions that then use those molecules for energy and repair — digestion feeds metabolism, but is not the same as it.