Word.ws English Dictionary

tumescence

/tjuːˈmɛsəns/

tumescence noun: a swelling due to the presence of fluid.

Noun

tumescence (countable and uncountable, plural tumescences)

  1. A swelling due to the presence of fluid.
    • It is still more remarkable that the reeves also, even in the presence of the males, will court each other and have intercourse. We may associate this with the high erotic development of birds, the difficulty with which tumescence seems to occur in them, and their long courtships.1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6)
  2. A swollen bodily organ; used especially of erectile tissue.

tumescence meaning in Tamil and Urdu

tumescence in Tamil

விறைப்பு, வீக்கம்

tumescence in Urdu

پھولن, سوجن, ورم

Synonyms of tumescence

4 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of tumescence

Forms of tumescence

pluraltumescences

Origin of tumescence

First attested 1725, from French tumescence, from Latin tumescēns (“swelling”), present participle of tumēscō (“to begin to swell”), from tumeō (“to swell”) + -ēscō (incohative suffix) (English -esce, in this form -escence), stem from Proto-Indo-European *tum-éh₁- (“to be swelling”), stative stem of *tum- (“to swell”).

Words formed from tumescence

Questions about tumescence

What does tumescence mean?
Tumescence means a swelling due to the presence of fluid.
What is tumescence in Tamil?
Tumescence in Tamil is விறைப்பு, வீக்கம். See Tumescence meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is tumescence?
Tumescence is a noun.
How do you pronounce tumescence?
Tumescence is pronounced /tjuːˈmɛsəns/ (UK).
What is the plural of tumescence?
The plural of tumescence is tumescences.

Words near tumescence in the dictionary

  1. tumen
  2. tumens
  3. tumeric
  4. tumesce
  5. tumesced
  6. tumescence
  7. tumescences
  8. tumescent
  9. tumescently
  10. tumesces
  11. tumescing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tumescence (page history and authors); tumescence (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tumescence (Urdu 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tumescence.wav.

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