Word.ws English Dictionary

phossy jaw

phossy jaw noun: a disease resulting from exposure to white phosphorus causing degeneration of the teeth and jaw.

Noun

phossy jaw (uncountable)

  1. A disease resulting from exposure to white phosphorus causing degeneration of the teeth and jaw.
    • “We thought she would escape phossy jaw. But it got her, yes, it got her, and she died a terrible death.”2005, Jennifer Worth, Shadows of the Workhouse, Weidenfeld & Nicholson (2009), page 143
    Synonyms:
    phosphorus necrosis of the jaw

Synonyms of phossy jaw

  • phosphorus necrosis of the jaw

Words formed from phossy jaw

Questions about phossy jaw

What does phossy jaw mean?
Phossy jaw means a disease resulting from exposure to white phosphorus causing degeneration of the teeth and jaw.
What part of speech is phossy jaw?
Phossy jaw is a noun.

Words near phossy jaw in the dictionary

  1. phosphuria
  2. phosphylation
  3. phosphylene
  4. phosphylenes
  5. phossy
  6. phossy jaw
  7. phossy water
  8. phosvette
  9. phosvettes
  10. phosvitin
  11. phosvitins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: phossy jaw (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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