PATENCY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does patency mean? 

• PATENCY (noun)
  The noun PATENCY has 2 senses:

1. the openness (lack of obstruction) of a bodily passage or duct

2. the property of being easy to see and understand

  Familiarity information: PATENCY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PATENCY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The openness (lack of obstruction) of a bodily passage or duct

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

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

openness (without obstructions to passage or view)

Derivation:

patent ((of a bodily tube or passageway) open; affording free passage)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The property of being easy to see and understand

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

noticeability; noticeableness; obviousness; patency

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

conspicuousness (high visibility)

Attribute:

noticeable (capable or worthy of being noticed)

unnoticeable (not noticeable; not drawing attention)

obvious (easily perceived by the senses or grasped by the mind)

unobvious (not immediately apparent)

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

apparency; apparentness (the property of being apparent)

blatancy (the property of being both obvious and offensive)

predominance; predomination (the quality of being more noticeable than anything else)

Derivation:

patent (make open to sight or notice)

patent (clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment)

 Context examples 

Quantifiable estimate of the potential patency of a vessel in the absence of stenosis.

(Estimated Potential Vessel Value, NCI Thesaurus)

A test for patency of the lacrimal system; fluorescein instilled in the conjunctival sac can be recovered from the inferior nasal meatus.

(Jones Test, NCI Thesaurus)

This agent is used in radionuclide cisternography to image the flow of CSF, for the identification of abnormalities in CSF circulation, for location of sites of CSF leakage, and for evaluation of CSF shunt patency.

(Indium In 111 Pentetate, NCI Thesaurus)