tuberculosis
/tjuːˌbɜːkjʊˈləʊsɪs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/tʃʉwˌbəːkjəˈləwsɪs/
tuberculosis noun: an infectious disease of humans and animals caused by a species of mycobacterium, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis, mainly infecting the lungs where it causes tubercles characterized by the expectoration of mucus and sputum, fever, weight loss, and chest pain, and transmitted through inhalation or ingestion of bacteria.
Noun
tuberculosis (countable and uncountable, plural tuberculoses)
- An infectious disease of humans and animals caused by a species of mycobacterium, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis, mainly infecting the lungs where it causes tubercles characterized by the expectoration of mucus and sputum, fever, weight loss, and chest pain, and transmitted through inhalation or ingestion of bacteria.
- With smallpox gone, tuberculosis is today the deadliest infectious disease on the planet.2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 380
- Synonyms:
- consumption, phthisic, TB, white death, white man's plague, white plague
tuberculosis meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
tuberculosis in Hindi
- infectious disease
- यक्ष्मा yakṣmā, क्षयी kṣayī, तपेदिक tapedik, तपेदिक़ tapediq, काली खाँसी kālī khā̃sī
tuberculosis in Tamil
- infectious disease
- காச நோய் kāca nōy, காசம் kācam, என்புருக்கி eṉpurukki, எலும்புருக்கி elumpurukki
tuberculosis in Urdu
- infectious disease
- یکشما yakṣmā
tuberculosis in Bengali
- tuberculosis
- যক্ষ্মা jokkha
More languagesFewer languages
- tuberculosis in Telugu
- క్షయ kṣaya
- tuberculosis in Malayalam
- ക്ഷയം kṣayaṁ
- tuberculosis in Kannada
- ಕ್ಷಯ kṣaya
- tuberculosis in Punjabi
- ਖਈ khaī
- tuberculosis in Gujarati
- ક્ષયરોગ kṣayarog, ઘાસણી ghāsṇī, યક્ષ્મા yakṣmā, ક્ષય kṣaya
- tuberculosis in Sanskrit
- क्षयरोग kṣayaroga, यक्ष्मा yakṣmā
- tuberculosis in Nepali
- क्षयरोग kṣayarog
- tuberculosis in Tagalog
- tuberkulosis, sigam, pagkatuyo, tuyo
- tuberculosis in Arabic
- سُلّ sull
- tuberculosis in Malay
- batuk kering, tuberkulosis
- tuberculosis in Indonesian
- tuberkulosis
- tuberculosis in Persian
- سل sell, تب دق tab-e deq, رنج باریک ranj-e bārīk, تب لازم tab-e lāzem
- tuberculosis in Thai
- วัณโรค wan-ná-rôok
- tuberculosis in Vietnamese
- bệnh lao
- Kashmiri
- سِلہٕ silụ
Examples of tuberculosis in a sentence
- It is hoped that the new vaccine will strike a blow against the spread of tuberculosis.
- A hacking cough is most commonly observed in chronic catarrh of the upper air-passages, in pharyngitis and laryngitis, and especially in beginning pulmonary tuberculosis; hence its importance.
- Pollution now kills three times as many people worldwide as Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined.
Synonyms of tuberculosis
- consumption
- phthisic
- TB
- white death
- white man's plague
- white plague
Forms of tuberculosis
| plural | tuberculoses |
|---|
Origin of tuberculosis
To international scientific vocabulary from New Latin tūberculōsis, from Latin tūberculum (diminutive of tūber (“lump”)) + Latin -ōsis (“diseased condition”); by surface analysis, tubercul(um) + -osis; named for the encapsulated colonies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the lungs in pulmonary tuberculosis, which can look like small tubers (tubercles) on gross pathology. The disease has existed throughout human experience and had other names for millennia before scientific medicine renamed it with a New Latin term in the mid-19th century (1840s); in English it was called consumption because of the wasting away that consumed health and seemed even to consume flesh in some cases (for example, causing fistulas and tissue breakdown).
Words formed from tuberculosis
Words that rhyme with tuberculosis
- apotheosis
- symbiosis
- -osis
- abiosis
- diagnosis
- gnosis
- hypnosis
- lordosis
- arthrosis
- cytosis
- kyphosis
- meiosis
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- osmosis
- prognosis
- sclerosis
- stenosis
- synostosis
- theosis
- acanthocytosis
- acanthosis
- acidosis
- adiposis
- aerobiosis
- alkalosis
- amyloidosis
- anadiplosis
- anostosis
- aponeurosis
- apoptosis
- endocytosis
- exocytosis
- halitosis
- hemochromatosis
- ichthyosis
- koilocytosis
- lactosis
- leukoerythroblastosis
- miosis
- mitosis
- mononucleosis
- mycosis
- neoatherosclerosis
- neurosis
- ochronosis
- osteophytosis
- osteoporosis
- parahypnosis
- phagocytosis
- pinocytosis
- pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
- potocytosis
- probiosis
- psychosis
- ptosis
- pyrosis
- retrognosis
- rubatosis
- silicosis
- simuliotoxicosis
- synchondrosis
Questions about tuberculosis
- What does tuberculosis mean?
- Tuberculosis means an infectious disease of humans and animals caused by a species of mycobacterium, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis, mainly infecting the lungs where it causes tubercles characterized by the expectoration of mucus and sputum, fever, weight loss, and chest pain, and transmitted through inhalation or ingestion of bacteria.
- What is tuberculosis in Hindi?
- Tuberculosis in Hindi is यक्ष्मा (yakṣmā), क्षयी (kṣayī), तपेदिक (tapedik). See Tuberculosis meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tuberculosis?
- Tuberculosis is a noun.
- How do you pronounce tuberculosis?
- Tuberculosis is pronounced /tjuːˌbɜːkjʊˈləʊsɪs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tuberculosis?
- The plural of tuberculosis is tuberculoses.
Words near tuberculosis in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tuberculosis (page history and authors); যক্ষ্মা (Bengali) (page history and authors); ਖਈ (Punjabi) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tuberculosis.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Knabrupt-tuberculosis.wav.
Cite this entry: “tuberculosis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tuberculosis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.