diagnosis
noun
Simple meaning
Identifying the nature or cause of some phenomenon.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dyuhgnohsuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
daɪəɡˈnoʊsəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
medicinecountableuncountable
Identifying the nature or cause of some phenomenon
medicinecountableuncountable
The process of, or an instance of, identification of the nature and cause of a medical condition or illness.
taxonomy
A written description of a species or other taxon serving to distinguish that species from all others; especially a description written and published in Latin.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Identifying the nature or cause of some phenomenon
Used this way, diagnosis is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use diagnosis
- “The doctor gave me a clear diagnosis after reviewing the tests.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: identifying the nature or cause of some phenomenon
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.