Word.ws English Dictionary

petit mal

UK/ˌpɛti ˈmal/

petit mal noun: a form of epilepsy where the seizures are characterized as minor, the person becomes vacant or unaware, but not involving spasms and unconsciousness. These seizures are usually brief, lasting up to 30 seconds, and may include twitching. A formal medical term would be absence seizures.

Noun

petit mal (uncountable)

  1. A form of epilepsy where the seizures are characterized as minor, the person becomes vacant or unaware, but not involving spasms and unconsciousness. These seizures are usually brief, lasting up to 30 seconds, and may include twitching. A formal medical term would be absence seizures.
    • Petit mal seizures are also known as absence seizures, which cause a loss of consciousness that is usually brief and barely noticeable. The neurons in a normal brain communicate by firing tiny electric signals.2010, Carol Turkington, Joseph Harris, The Encyclopedia of the Brain and Brain Disorders, 3rd edition, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 289

petit mal meaning in Tamil

petit mal in Tamil

பெற்றிமல்

Origin of petit mal

Borrowed from French petit mal (literally “little illness”).

Questions about petit mal

What does petit mal mean?
Petit mal means a form of epilepsy where the seizures are characterized as minor, the person becomes vacant or unaware, but not involving spasms and unconsciousness. These seizures are usually brief, lasting up to 30 seconds, and may include twitching. A formal medical term would be absence seizures.
What is petit mal in Tamil?
Petit mal in Tamil is பெற்றிமல். See Petit mal meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is petit mal?
Petit mal is a noun.
How do you pronounce petit mal?
Petit mal is pronounced /ˌpɛti ˈmal/ (UK).

Words near petit mal in the dictionary

  1. petit gâteau
  2. petit juries
  3. petit jury
  4. petit larcenies
  5. petit larceny
  6. petit mal
  7. petit maître
  8. Petit Nevis
  9. petit pois
  10. petit pâté
  11. Petit Saint Vincent

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: petit mal (page history and authors); petit mal (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: “petit mal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/petit_mal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.