Standard Lemma guide

sepsis

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

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.

  • /ˈsɛpsɪs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: S EH1 P S IH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed, causing injury to its own tissues and organs as a response to infection.

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

the presence of pus-forming bacteria or their toxins in the blood or 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: infection

Narrower terms: blood poisoning, septicemia, septicaemia, sapremia, sapraemia

History

Etymology

From Ancient Greek σῆψις (sêpsis, “putrefaction”), from σήπω (sḗpō, “to make rotten”), from σήψ (sḗps, “a kind of lizard; also a kind of serpent whose bite was alleged to cause putrefaction”).

Across languages

Translations

43 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: تَلَوُّث اَلْدَم (talawwuṯ al-dam) — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Basque: septizemia — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Catalan: sèpsia — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Chinese Mandarin: 敗血症 /败血症 (bàixiězhèng) — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Czech: sepse — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Czech: otrava krve — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Danish: sepsis — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Danish: blodforgiftning — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Dutch: sepsis — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Esperanto: sepso — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Esperanto: sangoveneniĝo — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Finnish: verenmyrkytys — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Finnish: sepsis — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • French: sepsis — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • German: Sepsis — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • German: Blutvergiftung — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • German: Septikämie — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Greek: σήψη (sípsi) — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Hebrew: אלח דם — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Hungarian: szepszis — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Hungarian: vérmérgezés — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Icelandic: graftarsótt — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Icelandic: (septicemia) blóðsýking — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Icelandic: (septicemia) blóðeitrun — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Indonesian: sepsis — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Italian: sepsi — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Japanese: 敗血症 (haiketsushō) — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Kazakh: сепсис (sepsis) — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Korean: 패혈증 (paehyeoljeung) — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Polish: sepsa — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Polish: posocznica — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Portuguese: sepse — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Portuguese: sépsis — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Romanian: sepsie — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Russian: се́псис (sɛ́psis) — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Russian: зараже́ние кро́ви (zaražénije króvi) — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Russian: о́бщее зараже́ние (óbščeje zaražénije) — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Slovak: sepsa — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Spanish: sepsis — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Swedish: sepsis — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Swedish: blodförgiftning — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Thai: ภาวะพิษเหตุติดเชื้อ (paa-wá-pít-hèet-dtìt-chʉ́ʉa) — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
  • Turkish: sepsis — serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed
Real reading context

sepsis in complete knowledge articles