kidney failure
noun · n
Simple meaning
Inability of the kidneys to excrete wastes and to help maintain the electrolyte balance.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kidneefaylyerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɪdniˈfeɪljɚ
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
Inability of the kidneys to excrete wastes and to help maintain the electrolyte balance
n
Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Inability of the kidneys to excrete wastes and to help maintain the electrolyte balance
Used this way, kidney failure is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- 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
- 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.