overdiagnosis
overdiagnosis noun: the act or process of diagnosing something too frequently, or based on insufficient evidence, or without benefit to the patient; an instance of this act or process.
Noun
overdiagnosis (countable and uncountable, plural overdiagnoses)
- The act or process of diagnosing something too frequently, or based on insufficient evidence, or without benefit to the patient; an instance of this act or process.
- While failing to make a diagnosis can result in lawsuits, there are no corresponding penalties for overdiagnosis.2007 January 2, H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartz, Steven Woloshin, “What’s Making Us Sick Is an Epidemic of Diagnoses”, in New York Times
- Specifically, the broader diagnostic criteria typically results in the overdiagnosis of autism, particularly among those more severely disabled.2007, Stephen E. Brock, Shane R. Jimerson, Robin L. Hansen, Identifying, Assessing, and Treating Autism at School, page 29
- Antonyms:
- underdiagnosis
Antonyms of overdiagnosis
Forms of overdiagnosis
| plural | overdiagnoses |
|---|
Origin of overdiagnosis
From over- + diagnosis.
Questions about overdiagnosis
- What does overdiagnosis mean?
- Overdiagnosis means the act or process of diagnosing something too frequently, or based on insufficient evidence, or without benefit to the patient; an instance of this act or process.
- What part of speech is overdiagnosis?
- Overdiagnosis is a noun.
- What is the plural of overdiagnosis?
- The plural of overdiagnosis is overdiagnoses.
Words near overdiagnosis in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overdiagnosis (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: “overdiagnosis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overdiagnosis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.