Word.ws English Dictionary

phthises

phthises is the plural of phthisis.

Meaning of phthisis

Noun

phthisis (countable and uncountable, plural phthises)

  1. (archaic) An atrophy of the body or part of the body, especially pulmonary tuberculosis.
    • For some months to my becoming acquainted with him, his physicians had declared him in a confirmed phthisis. It was his custom, indeed, to speak calmly of his approaching dissolution, as a matter neither to be avoided nor regretted.c. 1830-40's, Edgar Allan Poe, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar:Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Questions about phthises

What is phthises the plural of?
Phthises is the plural of phthisis.

Words near phthises in the dictionary

  1. phthirapterologist
  2. phthirapterologists
  3. phthiriases
  4. phthiriasis
  5. phthirophagous
  6. phthises
  7. phthisic
  8. phthisical
  9. phthisick
  10. phthisicks
  11. phthisicky

Source and license

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