Word.ws English Dictionary

chromothripsis

chromothripsis noun: a multiple of chromosomal rearrangements that is associated with some cancers.

Noun

chromothripsis (uncountable)

  1. A multiple of chromosomal rearrangements that is associated with some cancers.
    • But for 2—3% of cancers, particularly bone cancer (up to 25%), recent evidence suggests that a single event of chromothripsis involving one or a few chromosomes leads to multiple gene rearrangements (in some cases tens to hundreds) that can disrupt tumor suppressor genes and/or produce oncogenic...2012, Lauren Pecorino, Molecular Biology of Cancer: Mechanisms, Targets, and Therapeutics, page 24
    • Another new phenomenon described by Stephens et al.[86] is called “chromothripsis”. Chromothripsis describes a massive genomic rearrangement in one or more chromosomes in a single catastrophic event during the cells' history,2014, Asfar Azmi, Molecular Diagnostics and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer, page 113

Origin of chromothripsis

From Ancient Greek χρῶμα (khrôma, “colour”) (referring to English chromo(some)) + θρίψις (thrípsis, “shattering into pieces”) (from τρίβω (tríbō, “I rub”).

Questions about chromothripsis

What does chromothripsis mean?
Chromothripsis means a multiple of chromosomal rearrangements that is associated with some cancers.
What part of speech is chromothripsis?
Chromothripsis is a noun.

Words near chromothripsis in the dictionary

  1. chromotherapeutic
  2. chromotherapies
  3. chromotherapist
  4. chromotherapists
  5. chromotherapy
  6. chromothripsis
  7. chromothriptic
  8. chromotrichia
  9. chromotrichial
  10. chromotrop
  11. chromotrope

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chromothripsis (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “chromothripsis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chromothripsis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.