syndrome
noun
Simple meaning
A pattern of symptoms indicative of some disease.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sindrohmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɪndɹoʊm
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
pathology
A pattern of symptoms indicative of some disease
pathology
A recognizable pattern of signs, symptoms and/or behaviours, especially of a disease or medical or psychological condition.
Any set of characteristics regarded as identifying a certain type, condition, etc., usually adverse.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A pattern of symptoms indicative of some disease
Used this way, syndrome 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.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.
Recurrent sudden attacks of unconsciousness caused by impaired conduction of the impulse that regulates the heartbeat.
A glandular disorder caused by excessive cortisol.
Acute lung injury characterized by coughing and rales.
A psychiatric disorder usually noted during early school years.
A disease characterized by congestion and enlargement of the spleen.
A disorder of eating seen among young women who go on eating binges and then feel guilt and depression and self-condemnation.
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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.