DISEASE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does disease mean? 

• DISEASE (noun)
  The noun DISEASE has 1 sense:

1. an impairment of health or a condition of abnormal functioning

  Familiarity information: DISEASE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISEASE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An impairment of health or a condition of abnormal functioning

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("disease" is a kind of...):

illness; malady; sickness; unwellness (impairment of normal physiological function affecting part or all of an organism)

Meronyms (parts of "disease"):

symptom ((medicine) any sensation or change in bodily function that is experienced by a patient and is associated with a particular disease)

sign ((medicine) any objective evidence of the presence of a disorder or disease)

syndrome (a pattern of symptoms indicative of some disease)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "disease"):

cystic breast disease; cystic mastitis; fibrocystic breast disease; fibrocystic disease of the breast (the presence of one or more cysts in a breast)

periodontal disease; periodontitis (a disease that attacks the gum and bone and around the teeth)

liver disease (a disease affecting the liver)

communicable disease (a disease that can be communicated from one person to another)

exanthema subitum; pseudorubella; roseola infantilis; roseola infantum (a viral disease of infants and young children; characterized by abrupt high fever and mild sore throat; a few days later there is a faint pinkish rash that lasts for a few hours to a few days)

respiratory disease; respiratory disorder; respiratory illness (a disease affecting the respiratory system)

congenital disease; genetic abnormality; genetic defect; genetic disease; genetic disorder; hereditary condition; hereditary disease; inherited disease; inherited disorder (a disease or disorder that is inherited genetically)

inflammatory disease (a disease characterized by inflammation)

autoimmune disease; autoimmune disorder (any of a large group of diseases characterized by abnormal functioning of the immune system that causes your immune system to produce antibodies against your own tissues)

deficiency disease (any disease caused by a lack of an essential nutrient (as a vitamin or mineral))

periarteritis nodosa; polyarteritis nodosa (a progressive disease of connective tissue that is characterized by nodules along arteries; nodules may block the artery and result in inadequate circulation to the particular area)

goiter; goitre; struma; thyromegaly (abnormally enlarged thyroid gland; can result from underproduction or overproduction of hormone or from a deficiency of iodine in the diet)

pappataci fever; phlebotomus; sandfly fever (a mild viral disease transmitted by the bite of the sand fly Phlebotomus papatasii)

disease of the skin; skin disease; skin disorder (a disease affecting the skin)

malignance; malignancy ((medicine) a malignant state; progressive and resistant to treatment and tending to cause death)

eye disease (any disease of the eye)

animal disease (a disease that typically does not affect human beings)

plant disease (a disease that affects plants)

ozaena; ozena (a chronic disease of the nose characterized by a foul-smelling nasal discharge and atrophy of nasal structures)

filariasis (a disease caused by nematodes in the blood or tissues of the body causing blockage of lymphatic vessels)

Kawasaki disease; mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome (an acute disease of young children characterized by a rash and swollen lymph nodes and fever; of unknown cause)

aspergillosis (disease especially in agricultural workers caused by inhalation of Aspergillus spores causing lumps in skin and ears and respiratory organs)

anthrax (a disease of humans that is not communicable; caused by infection with Bacillus anthracis followed by septicemia)

blackwater (any of several human or animal diseases characterized by dark urine resulting from rapid breakdown of red blood cells)

cat scratch disease (a disease thought to be transmitted to humans by a scratch from a cat)

complication (any disease or disorder that occurs during the course of (or because of) another disease)

crud (an ill-defined bodily ailment)

endemic; endemic disease (a disease that is constantly present to a greater or lesser degree in people of a certain class or in people living in a particular location)

enteropathy (a disease of the intestinal tract)

incompetence (inability of a part or organ to function properly)

disease of the neuromuscular junction (a disease characterized by impairment of neuromuscular junctions)

pycnosis; pyknosis (a degenerative state of the cell nucleus)

boutonneuse fever; Indian tick fever; Kenya fever; Marseilles fever (a disease (common in India and around the Mediterranean area) caused by a rickettsia that is transmitted to humans by a reddish brown tick (ixodid) that lives on dogs and other mammals)

Meniere's disease (a disease of the inner ear characterized by episodes of dizziness and tinnitus and progressive hearing loss (usually unilateral))

milk sickness (caused by consuming milk from cattle suffering from trembles)

mimesis (any disease that shows symptoms characteristic of another disease)

industrial disease; occupational disease (disease or disability resulting from conditions of employment (usually from long exposure to a noxious substance or from continuous repetition of certain acts))

onychosis (any disease or disorder of the nails)

rheumatism (any painful disorder of the joints or muscles or connective tissues)

 Context examples 

ALS is a progressive and terminal disease that damages the function of nerves and muscle.

(Mechanism behind neuron death in motor neurone disease and frontotemporal dementia discovered, University of Cambridge)

A host of molecular proteins can be utilized as measurable phenotypic parameters to characterize or indicate the disease state of melanoma. 2005

(Melanoma Biomarker, NCI Thesaurus)

A drug used to treat dementia caused by Alzheimer disease.

(Memantine hydrochloride, NCI Dictionary)

Such insomnia associated loci may contribute to the genetic risk underlying a range of health conditions including psychiatric disorders and metabolic disease.

(Can't Sleep? Could Be Down to Genetics, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Drinking coffee was associated with lower risk of death due to heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease.

(Drink Coffee for a Longer Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Drugs or substances that affect this pathway are being studied in the prevention and treatment of some diseases.

(ABCA1 pathway, NCI Dictionary)

Mutations in this gene are associated with alpha-2-macroglobulin deficiency and susceptibility to Alzheimer disease.

(A2M wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Medicine applied to diseases that predispose to cancer.

(Medicine, Precancer, NCI Thesaurus)

A team of scientists of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) set out to develop a simplified treatment with fewer antibodies by generating mAbs from human survivors of Ebola virus disease.

(Experimental Ebola antibody protects monkeys, NIH)

These studies, he explains, look at cardiovascular risk “markers”—factors related to heart health, such as blood pressure—not long-term outcomes like heart disease and stroke.

(Can Chocolate Really Be Good for You?, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)