tubercular

/tjuˈbɜːkjələ(ɹ)/US/tuˈbɝkjəlɚ/

tubercular adjective: of, pertaining to, or having tuberculosis.

Adjective

tubercular (comparative more tubercular, superlative most tubercular)

Of, pertaining to, or having tuberculosis.
- As he grew older, his tubercular thinness tended toward emaciation.1924 November 24, “Critical Inspection of a Myth”, in Time
- He set up business in Sydney, the little capital city of one of the middle Southern states, lived soberly and industriously under the attentive eye of a folk still raw with defeat and hostility, and finally, his good name founded and admission won, he married a gaunt tubercular spinstress, ten...1929, Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, Part One, Chapter 1
Synonyms:

tuberculous, tuberculate
Relating to or reminiscent of the wheezing sounds associated with the breathing of tuberculosis patients.
- The engine heaved. […] The thing sounded like a tubercular tugboat engine without a muffler.1994, John DeChancie, David Bischoff, chapter 9, in Masters of Spacetime, Crossroad Press, published 2015
- Crows on the roof beat their wings and made their low tubercular moan.2007, Declan Hughes, chapter 1, in The Colour of Blood
Having, being, or relating to tubercles.
- “ORANGE ORCHID” “SPOTTED ORCHID” […] Dorsal appendage of the hood of column smooth, tubercular and notched at the end.1930, Emily Pelloe, West Australian Orchids, page 13
Synonyms:

tuberculate

tubercular (plural tuberculars)

(dated) A person who has tuberculosis.
- They are the tuberculars, the psychiatrics, and the older men suffering from chronic conditions. All of those men are totally disabled.1954, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations, Hearings, page 907

ক্ষয়রোগগ্রস্ত

There had been, too, all the long weeks of Rosie’s tubercular dying to go through.1941, Emily Carr, chapter 5, in Klee Wyck:
A raspy, nasal and welcoming instrument, with a tubercular kind of charisma.2016 October 8, Brad Wheeler, “Old Dylan and Stones deliver at new Desert Trip music festival”, in The Globe and Mail:

Latin tuberculum (“diminutive of tuber (“lump”)”) + -ar

What does tubercular mean?: Tubercular means of, pertaining to, or having tuberculosis.
What is tubercular in Bengali?: Tubercular in Bengali is ক্ষয়রোগগ্রস্ত. See Tubercular meaning in Bengali.
How do you use tubercular in a sentence?: There had been, too, all the long weeks of Rosie’s tubercular dying to go through.
What part of speech is tubercular?: Tubercular can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce tubercular?: Tubercular is pronounced /tjuˈbɜːkjələ(ɹ)/ (UK).

Adapted from Wiktionary: tubercular (page history and authors); tubercular (Bengali 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-tubercular.ogg.

Cite this entry: “tubercular.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tubercular. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.