prognosis
noun
Simple meaning
A prediction of the course of a disease.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
prahgnohsuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɹɑɡˈnoʊsəs
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
medicine
A prediction of the course of a disease
medicine
A forecast of the future course or outcome of a disease or disorder based on current medical knowledge.
A forecast of the future course or outcome of a situation based on what is presently known; a prediction.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: A prediction of the course of a disease
Used this way, prognosis is a specialist word with a faintly unfavourable edge. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
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.
Nearby words
- medical prognosis , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use prognosis
- “The doctor gave a good prognosis for her recovery after the operation.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A prediction of the course of a disease.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- etiologynoun
- chemotherapynoun
- radiotherapynoun
- remissionnoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: prediction of the course of a disease
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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.