Standard Lemma guide

rheumatism

noun · 4 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.

  • /ˈɹu.məˌtɪz.əm/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US, dialectal, obsolete: /ˈɹu.məˌtɪz/
  • CMU ARPABET: R UW1 M AH0 T IH2 Z AH0 M Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any disorder of the muscles, tendons, joints, bones, nerves, characterized by pain, discomfort and disability.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Atrophic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

any painful disorder of the joints or muscles or connective tissues

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: disease

4

noun

Meaning 4

a chronic autoimmune disease with inflammation of the joints and marked deformities; something (possibly a virus) triggers an attack on the synovium by the immune system, which releases cytokines that stimulate an inflammatory reaction that can lead to the destruction of all components of the joint

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: rheumatoid arthritis, atrophic arthritis

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: arthritis, autoimmune disease, autoimmune disorder

Narrower terms: psoriatic arthritis, Still's disease, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis

History

Etymology

First attested 1601, from Latin rheumatismus (“rheum”), from Ancient Greek ῥευματισμός (rheumatismós, “humour, discharge, rheum”) from ῥευματίζομαι (rheumatízomai, “to suffer from a rheum”) from ῥεῦμα (rheûma, “stream, flow”) from ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow”)

Across languages

Translations

60 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: رَثْيَة (raṯya) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Armenian: ռեւմատիզմ (ṙewmatizm) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Bulgarian: ревматизъм (revmatizǎm) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Catalan: reumatisme — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Chinese Mandarin: 風濕 /风湿 (fēngshī) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Chinese Mandarin: 風濕病 /风湿病 (fēngshībìng) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Czech: revmatismus — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Esperanto: reŭmatismo — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Faroese: gikt — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Finnish: reumatismi — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Finnish: reuma — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • French: rhumatisme — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Galician: reumatismo — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Galician: reuma — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • German: Rheuma — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • German: Rheumatismus — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Hebrew: שיגרון — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Hindi: गठिया (gaṭhiyā) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Hungarian: reuma — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Hungarian: csúz — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Irish: scoilteacha — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Irish: daitheacha — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Japanese: リウマチ (riumachi) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Japanese: リューマチ (ryūmachi) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Kazakh: ревматизм (revmatizm) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Kazakh: құздама (qūzdama) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Khmer: ឈឺសន្លាក់ឆ្អឹង (chɨɨ sɑnlak chʼəng) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Korean: 류머티즘 (ryumeotijeum) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Lezgi: кпул (kpul) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Māori: kaikoiwi — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Māori: rūmātiki — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Marathi: संधिवात (sandhivāt) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Navajo: agizii — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Plautdietsch: Rietinj — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Polish: reumatyzm — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Portuguese: reumatismo — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Russian: ревмати́зм (revmatízm) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Scottish Gaelic: lòinidh — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Scottish Gaelic: siataig — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Sicilian: ramatichi — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Slovak: reumatizmus — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Spanish: reumatismo — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Tagalog: rayuma — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Tausug: ulapid — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Thai: รูมาติซึม — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Turkish: romatizma — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Ottoman Turkish: یل (yel) — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Vietnamese: (bệnh) phong thấp — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Vietnamese: (bệnh) tê thấp — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Vietnamese: (bệnh) thấp khớp — any painful disorder of muscles, tendons, joints, bones and nerves
  • Chinese Mandarin: 類風濕性關節炎 /类风湿性关节炎 (lèifēngshīxìng guānjiéyán) — rheumatoid arthritis
  • Finnish: nivelreuma — rheumatoid arthritis
  • Galician: reuma — rheumatoid arthritis
  • Hindi: गठिया (gaṭhiyā) — rheumatoid arthritis
  • Plautdietsch: Rietinj — rheumatoid arthritis
  • Polish: reumatyzm — rheumatoid arthritis
  • Russian: ревмати́зм (revmatízm) — rheumatoid arthritis
  • Scottish Gaelic: lòinidh — rheumatoid arthritis
  • Scottish Gaelic: siataig — rheumatoid arthritis
  • Spanish: artritis reumatoide — rheumatoid arthritis
Real reading context

rheumatism in complete knowledge articles