pathological
adjective
Simple meaning
About, amounting to, or caused by a physical or mental disorder.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pathuhlahjihkuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pæθəˈlɑdʒɪkəl
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.
adjective
medicine
Relating to, amounting to, or caused by a physical or mental disorder.
medicine
Of or relating to the practice of pathology
computer science
Having properties that cause unusually bad behaviour, especially regarding correctness or performance.
medicine
Pertaining to pathology.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Relating to, amounting to, or caused by a physical or mental disorder.
Used this way, pathological 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 pathological
- “Pathological laboratory.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The branch of medical science that studies the causes and nature and effects of diseases.
A doctor who specializes in medical diagnosis.
Related to Relating to, amounting to, or caused by a physical or mental disorder.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An organic process occurring as a consequence of disease.
A physical condition that is caused by disease.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: relating to or amounting to
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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.