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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UK:/tʃuːˌbɜː(ɹ)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/
Received-Pronunciation:/tjuːˌbɜː(ɹ)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Canada, General-American:/tuˌbɝkjʊˈloʊsɪs/
Canada, General-American:/tʊ-/
General-American:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -əʊsɪs
CMU ARPABET:T AH0 B ER2 K Y AH0 L OW1 S IH0 S
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
CMU ARPABET 2:T UW0 B ER2 K Y AH0 L OW1 S AH0 S
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
CMU ARPABET 3:T UW0 B ER2 K Y UW0 L OW1 S AH0 S
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
An infectious disease of humans and animals caused by a species of mycobacterium, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis, mainly infecting the lungs where it causes tubercles characterized by the expectoration of mucus and sputum, fever, weight loss, and chest pain, and transmitted through inhalation or ingestion of bacteria.
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
infection transmitted by inhalation or ingestion of tubercle bacilli and manifested in fever and small lesions (usually in the lungs but in various other parts of the body in acute stages)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
To international scientific vocabulary from New Latin tūberculōsis, from Latin tūberculum (diminutive of tūber (“lump”)) + Latin -ōsis (“diseased condition”); by surface analysis, tubercul(um) + -osis; named for the encapsulated colonies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the lungs in pulmonary tuberculosis, which can look like small tubers (tubercles) on gross pathology. The disease has existed throughout human experience and had other names for millennia before scientific medicine renamed it with a New Latin term in the mid-19th century (1840s); in English it was called consumption because of the wasting away that consumed health and seemed even to consume flesh in some cases (for example, causing fistulas and tissue breakdown).
Across languages
Translations
161 source translations are retained for this English entry.
