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atrophy.

A reduction in the functionality of an organ caused by disease, injury or lack of use.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈæt.ɹə.fi/Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈɛt.ɹə.fi/New-Zealand
  1. A reduction in the functionality of an organ caused by disease, injury or lack of use.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French atrophie, from Latin atrophia, from Ancient Greek ἀτροφία (atrophía, “a wasting away”), from ἄτροφος (átrophos, “ill-fed, un-nourished”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + τροφή (trophḗ, “nourishment”), from τρέφω (tréphō, “to fatten”). Equivalent to a- + -trophy.

verb/ˈæt.ɹə.fi/Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈɛt.ɹə.fi/New-Zealand
  1. To wither or waste away.

    intransitive
  2. To cause to waste away or become abortive; to starve or weaken.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French atrophie, from Latin atrophia, from Ancient Greek ἀτροφία (atrophía, “a wasting away”), from ἄτροφος (átrophos, “ill-fed, un-nourished”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + τροφή (trophḗ, “nourishment”), from τρέφω (tréphō, “to fatten”). Equivalent to a- + -trophy.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.