cancer
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkænsə/
ipa: /ˈkæːnsə/
ipa: /ˈkænsɚ/
rhymes: -ænsə(ɹ)
Forms: form: cancers
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin cancer (“crab”), a calque of Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab; ulcer; cancer”) (possibly cognate), applied to cancerous tumors because the enlarged veins resembled the legs of a crab. Doublet of canker and chancre.
Senses: examples: text: If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the[…]hazards of gasoline cars: air and water pollution, noise and noxiousness, constant coughing and the undeniable rise in cancers caused by smoke exhaust particulates.
ref: 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:
text: Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.
ref: 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:
text: Cancers are common diseases; in the aggregate, they are among the leading causes of death nationally and worldwide, and their incidence is increasing as the population ages.
ref: 2015 February 26, Francis S. Collins, Harold Varmus, “A New Initiative on Precision Medicine”, in The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 372, number 9, →DOI, pages 793–794:
topics: medicine
oncology
pathology
sciences
glosses: A disease in which the cells of a tissue undergo uncontrolled (and often rapid) proliferation.
examples: text: The disease of the self runs through my blood; It's a cancer fatal to my soul.
ref: 1991, Charlie Peacock, “In the Light”:
text: Sierra Leone's post-dictator problems are almost absurd in their breadth. It once exported rice; now it can't feed itself. The life span of the average citizen is 39, the shortest in Africa. Unemployment stands at 87 percent and tuberculosis is spreading out of control. Corruption, brazen and ubiquitous, is a cancer on the economy.
ref: 1999, Bruce Clifford Ross-Larson, Effective Writing, page 134:
glosses: Something damaging that spreads throughout something else.
Synonyms: sense: disease
word: malignancy
sense: something which spreads
word: growth
sense: something which spreads
word: lichen
Hypernyms: sense: disease
word: growth
sense: disease
word: tumor
sense: disease
word: neoplasia
sense: disease
word: neoplasm
Hyponyms: word: adenocarcinoma
word: carcinoma
word: leukaemia
word: leukemia
word: lymphoma
word: lymphosarcoma
word: sarcoma
sense: See also
word: Derived terms denoting types
Coordinate terms: benign tumor
benign neoplasm
benign neoplasia
Derived terms: sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: abdominal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: anal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: anti-cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: bile duct cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: biliary tract cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: black cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: bladder cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: blood cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: bone cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: boob cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: bowel cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: brain cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: breast cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: cervical cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: cheek cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: chimney sweep's cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: colon cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: colonic cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: colorectal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: concrete cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: duodenal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: ear cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: esophageal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: eye cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: gallbladder cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: gastric cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: gay cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: give someone ass cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: give someone butt cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: green cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: gum cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: head and neck cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: head-neck cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: heart cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: hepatic cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: hypopharyngeal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: I have cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: intestinal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: jaw cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: kairo cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: kidney cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: laryngeal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: larynx cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: lip cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: liver cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: lung cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: lymphatic cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: lymph gland cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: lymph node cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: mismatch repair cancer syndrome
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: mouth cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: mule spinner's cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: mule spinners' cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: multi-cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: nasal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: neck and head cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: neck cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: nose cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: occupational cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: ocular cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: oesophageal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: oral cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: oropharyngeal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: ovarian cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: pancreatic cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: penile cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: pharyngeal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: pharynx cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: prostate cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: rectal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: renal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: scrotal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: skin cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: small intestine cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: stomach cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: swamp cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: testicular cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: throat cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: thyroid cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: tongue cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: tonsil cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: tree cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: triple-negative breast cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: triple negative breast cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: turbo cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: uterine cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: vaginal cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: walking skin cancer
sense: types of cancer; hyponymic
word: womb cancer
taxonomic: Kickxia spp.
word: cancerwort
taxonomic: Lessertia frutescens
word: cancer bush
word: cancer stick
word: cancer root
sense: unsorted terms
word: adenocancer
sense: unsorted terms
word: anticancer
sense: unsorted terms
word: canceration
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancer cell
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancered
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerette
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerfic
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancericidal
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerism
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerized
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerless
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerlike
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerogenesis
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerogenic
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerology
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerome
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerostatic
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerphobe
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerphobia
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerphobic
sense: unsorted terms
word: CancerTok
sense: unsorted terms
word: cancerweed
sense: unsorted terms
word: cure for cancer
sense: unsorted terms
word: multicancer
sense: unsorted terms
word: neocancer
sense: unsorted terms
word: noncancer
sense: unsorted terms
word: pancancer
sense: unsorted terms
word: postcancer
sense: unsorted terms
word: precancer
sense: unsorted terms
word: pure cancer
Related terms: Cancer
cancerization
cancerize
cancerous
canker
carcinogen
chancre
precancerous