homeostasis

Sean B. Carrollの 'The Serengeti Rules' を読んでいます。
Cannon emphasized how most organs received dual nervous inputs that, as a rule, opposed each other. With this wiring, organ activity can be increased or decreased depending on conditions. Impressed by the body's ability to adjust to disturbances. Cannon coined a new term to describe the steady states maintained in the body: homeostasis (from the Greek homeo meaning "similar" and stasis meaning "standing still").

上の引用文に出てきた "homeostasis" は 8/27/2014に取り上げていますが、辞書の説明を引用していないので今回辞書で再確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: The tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes.: However, hormones that regulate physiological homeostasis in adults may be diluted, up to six-fold.

・Collins Dictionary: the tendency of a system, esp. the physiological system of higher animals, to maintain internal stability, owing to the coordinated response of its parts to any situation or stimulus tending to disturb its normal condition or function

・Cambridge English Dictionary: the ability or tendency of a living organism, cell, or group to keep the conditions inside it the same despite any changes in the conditions around it, or this state of internal balance: Warm-blooded animals are able to achieve temperature homeostasis.
最後に引用した辞書の説明が一番素人向けで分かり易い。