Word.ws English Dictionary

Murphy's sign

Murphy's sign noun: a sign of cholecystitis, etc. identified by the patient experiencing pain when the gall bladder is obstructed on the right-hand side while they breathe out.

Noun

Murphy's sign

  1. A sign of cholecystitis, etc. identified by the patient experiencing pain when the gall bladder is obstructed on the right-hand side while they breathe out.

Origin of Murphy's sign

Named after American physician John Benjamin Murphy (1857–1916).

Questions about Murphy's sign

What does Murphy's sign mean?
Murphy's sign means a sign of cholecystitis, etc. identified by the patient experiencing pain when the gall bladder is obstructed on the right-hand side while they breathe out.
What part of speech is Murphy's sign?
Murphy's sign is a noun.

Words near Murphy's sign in the dictionary

  1. Murphy game
  2. Murphy games
  3. Murphy's button
  4. Murphy's Law
  5. Murphy's punch
  6. Murphy's sign
  7. Murphy's test
  8. Murphy's triad
  9. Murphy-Lane bone skid
  10. Murphying
  11. Murphys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Murphy's sign (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.

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Cite this entry: “Murphy's sign.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/murphy%27s_sign. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.