irritable bowel syndrome
noun
Simple meaning
A functional disorder causing the nerves and muscles of the large intestine to be oversensitive, leading to symptoms such as cramp, bloating.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihruhtuhbuhlbowuhlsindrohmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɪɹətəbəlˈbaʊəlˈsɪndɹoʊm
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
medicinegastroenterology
A functional disorder causing the nerves and muscles of the large intestine to be oversensitive, leading to symptoms such as cramp, bloating, flatulence, diarrhoea and constipation.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (medicine, gastroenterology) A functional disorder causing the nerves and muscles of the large intestine to be oversensitive, leading to symptoms such as cramp, bloating, flatulence, diarrhoea and constipation.
Used this way, irritable bowel syndrome 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.
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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.