Standard Lemma guide

dystocia

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /dɪsˈtoʊʃə/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /dɪsˈtəʊʃə/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A slow or difficult labour or delivery.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: biology, medicine, natural-sciences, pathology, sciences, veterinary, zoology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bradytocia

Antonyms: eutocia

History

Etymology

From Ancient Greek δυστοκία (dustokía, “difficult childbirth”), from δυσ- (dus-, “bad”) + τόκος (tókos, “childbirth”), from τίκτω (tíktō, “I give birth”).

Across languages

Translations

11 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: distòcia — slow or difficult labour or delivery
  • Finnish: dystokia — slow or difficult labour or delivery
  • French: dystocie — slow or difficult labour or delivery
  • German: Gebärschwierigkeit — slow or difficult labour or delivery
  • Greek: δυστοκία (dystokía) — slow or difficult labour or delivery
  • Ancient Greek: δυστοκία (dustokía) — slow or difficult labour or delivery
  • Indonesian: distokia — slow or difficult labour or delivery
  • Indonesian: distosia — slow or difficult labour or delivery
  • Japanese: 難産 (nanzan) — slow or difficult labour or delivery
  • Russian: дисто́ция (distócija) — slow or difficult labour or delivery
  • Russian: патологи́ческие ро́ды (patologíčeskije ródy) — slow or difficult labour or delivery