Standard Lemma guide

idiopathic

adj · 2 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.

  • /ˌɪdioʊˈpæθɪk/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: IH2 D IY0 OW0 P AE1 TH AH0 K Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of, relating to, or designating a disease or condition having no known cause.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cryptogenic, essential, primary, agnogenic

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective

Meaning 2

(of diseases) arising from an unknown cause

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • idiopathic epilepsy

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From idio- + -pathic. First appears c. 1669, in the publications of William Simpson.

Across languages

Translations

23 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: идиопатичен (idiopatičen) — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Catalan: idiopàtic — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Chinese Mandarin: 特發性 /特发性 (tèfāxìng) — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Czech: esenciální — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Finnish: idiopaattinen — disease or condition having no known cause
  • French: idiopathique — disease or condition having no known cause
  • German: idiopathisch — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Greek: ιδιοπαθής (idiopathís) — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Hungarian: idiopátiás — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Icelandic: sjálfvakinn — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Icelandic: frumkvilla- — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Indonesian: idiopatik — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Irish: ideapatach — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Italian: idiopatico — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Japanese: 特発性 (tokuhatsusei) — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Norwegian: idiopatisk — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Polish: idiopatyczny — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Polish: idiopatyczna — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Polish: idiopatyczne — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Portuguese: idiopático — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Romanian: idiopatic — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Russian: идиопатический (idiopatičeskij) — disease or condition having no known cause
  • Spanish: idiopático — disease or condition having no known cause