atrophy

C2+ Topic:Health & Medicine

US /ˈætrəfi/ UK /ˈætrəfi/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
the wasting away of a body part or faculty from disuse or disease

Months in bed caused noticeable atrophy of his leg muscles.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · the wasting away of a body... wasting degeneration deterioration decline withering wither degenerate shrivel

Opposites

hypertrophy growth development strengthening

Word family

Derived forms atrophicatrophied

Related forms trophicdystrophyhypertrophy

Etymology

From Late Latin atrophia, from Ancient Greek atrophía ('a wasting away'), from átrophos ('ill-fed, unfed'), from a- ('without') + trophḗ ('nourishment'), from tréphō ('I nourish').

atrophía Ancient Greek tréphō Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Health & Medicine Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# atrophy

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈætrəfi/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈætrəfi/

## Meanings
1. the wasting away of a body part or faculty from disuse or disease

## Examples
- Months in bed caused noticeable atrophy of his leg muscles.

## Synonyms
- wasting
- degeneration
- deterioration
- decline
- withering
- wither
- degenerate
- shrivel

## Antonyms
- hypertrophy
- growth
- development
- strengthening

## Derived Forms
- atrophic
- atrophied

## Related Forms
- trophic
- dystrophy
- hypertrophy

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: atrophía
- Root: tréphō

## Etymology
From Late Latin atrophia, from Ancient Greek atrophía ('a wasting away'), from átrophos ('ill-fed, unfed'), from a- ('without') + trophḗ ('nourishment'), from tréphō ('I nourish').

## AI Etymology
atrophy comes from Late Latin atrophia, from Ancient Greek atrophía ('a wasting away'), from átrophos ('ill-fed, unfed'), from a- ('without') + trophḗ ('nourishment'), from tréphō ('I nourish'). Morphologically, the word is transparent as a compound: its parts remain visible in the modern spelling, while the older history of those parts supplies the deeper ancestry. In modern use, the noun sense is "the wasting away of a body part or faculty from disuse or disease", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as trophic, dystrophy, hypertrophy and derivatives such as atrophic, atrophied, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Ancient Greek atrophía, Ancient Greek tréphō, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- Health & Medicine
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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atrophy

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