Phagocytosis is the process by which a cell engulfs material either to destroy it, to feed on it, or to get information from it. Learn how important this process is to your own immune system. What Is Phagocytosis? Aside from being one of the most fun words to say in science, the process of phagocytosis is pretty cool in itself. Remember the old video game Pac-Man? You guide the round, yellow character through a maze, dodging ghosts and gobbling up little dots. When Pac-Man opens his mouth and consumes one of the dots, it's a little bit like phagocytosis.
Endocytosis is a process through which a cell absorbs a particle, molecule, bacterium, or other type of matter by engulfing it. Phagocytosis refers to the engulfing of larger, solid particles. Often, the engulfed particle is another cell, like when a white blood cell, which is a part of the immune system, engulfs a bacterium to destroy it.