tuberculosis

B2 Topic:Health & Medicine

US /tuˌbɚkjʊˈloʊsɪs/ UK /tʃuːˌbɜː(ɹ)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/ See IPA manual

Freq #18250

Meanings

1

noun
A serious infectious disease that mainly attacks the lungs, causing coughing, fever, and weight loss.

With smallpox gone, tuberculosis is today the deadliest infectious disease on the planet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a serious infectious... consumptiontb

Word family

Forms tuberculartuberculoses

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

pulmonary tuberculosis
tuberculosis affecting the lungs

Adjective + noun

Etymology

To international scientific vocabulary from New Latin tūberculōsis, from Latin tūberculum (diminutive of tūber (“lump”)) + Latin -ōsis (“diseased condition”); by surface analysis, tubercul(um) + -osis; named for the encapsulated colonies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the lungs in pulmonary tuberculosis, which can look like small tubers (tubercles) on gross pathology. The disease has existed throughout human experience and had other names for millennia before scientific medicine renamed it with a New Latin term in the mid-19th century (1840s); in English it was called consumption because…

*tewh₂- Proto-Indo-European tūberculōsis la-new tūberculum Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Health & Medicine

External links

# tuberculosis

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /tuˌbɚkjʊˈloʊsɪs/
**IPA (UK):** /tʃuːˌbɜː(ɹ)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/
**Frequency rank:** 18250

## Meanings
1. A serious infectious disease that mainly attacks the lungs, causing coughing, fever, and weight loss.

## Examples
- With smallpox gone, tuberculosis is today the deadliest infectious disease on the planet.

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *tewh₂-
- Root: tūberculōsis
- Root: tūberculum

## Etymology
To international scientific vocabulary from New Latin tūberculōsis, from Latin tūberculum (diminutive of tūber (“lump”)) + Latin -ōsis (“diseased condition”); by surface analysis, tubercul(um) + -osis; named for the encapsulated colonies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the lungs in pulmonary tuberculosis, which can look like small tubers (tubercles) on gross pathology. The disease has existed throughout human experience and had other names for millennia before scientific medicine renamed it with a New Latin term in the mid-19th century (1840s); in English it was called consumption because…

## AI Etymology
Tuberculosis to international scientific vocabulary from New Latin tūberculōsis, from Latin tūberculum (diminutive of tūber (“lump”)) + Latin -ōsis (“diseased condition”); by surface analysis, tubercul(um) + -osis; named for the encapsulated colonies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the lungs in pulmonary tuberculosis, which can look like small tubers (tubercles) on gross pathology. In present-day use, it can mean a serious infectious disease that mainly attacks the lungs, causing coughing, fever, and weight loss.

## Topics
- Health & Medicine

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