Standard Lemma guide

psychosurgery

noun · 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

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1

noun

Meaning 1

Surgery of the brain to treat or alleviate mental illness.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: medicine, sciences, surgery

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

brain surgery on human patients intended to relieve severe and otherwise intractable mental or behavioral problems

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: brain surgery

Narrower terms: amygdalotomy, callosotomy, callosectomy, lobotomy, leukotomy, leucotomy, prefrontal lobotomy, prefrontal leukotomy, prefrontal leucotomy, frontal lobotomy

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek ψῡχή (psūkhḗ) Ancient Greek ψῡχο- (psūkho-)der. English psycho- Proto-Indo-European *ǵhes- Proto-Indo-European *-ōr Proto-Indo-European *ǵhésōr Proto-Hellenic *khéhər Ancient Greek χείρ (kheír) Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom Proto-Hellenic *wérgon Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon) Ancient Greek -ουργός (-ourgós) Ancient Greek χειρουργός (kheirourgós) Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *-eyéti Proto-Indo-European *-esyéti Proto-Indo-European *-éh1ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh1yeti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Ancient Greek -έω (-éō) Ancient Greek χειρουργέω (kheirourgéō) Proto-Indo-European *-h2 Proto-Indo-European *-éh2 Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh2 Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek χειρουργίᾱ̆ (kheirourgíā̆)bor. Latin chīrūrgiader. Old French surgie Old French surgeriebor. Middle English surgerie English surgery English psychosurgery From psycho- + surgery.

Real reading context

psychosurgery in complete knowledge articles