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cancer.

A disease in which the cells of a tissue undergo uncontrolled (often rapid) proliferation.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkænsə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkæːnsə/Australia/ˈkænsɚ/General-American
  1. A disease in which the cells of a tissue undergo uncontrolled (often rapid) proliferation.

    countable · uncountable
    Sure, almost everything 'causes cancer' now. That said, I don't go hugging nuclear waste or acting like cancer itself is some conspiracy.
  2. Something damaging that spreads throughout something else.

    countable · figuratively · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Latin cancer (“crab”), a calque of Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab; ulcer; cancer”), possibly cognate, applied to cancerous tumors because of a supposed resemblence between their enlarged veins and the legs of a crab. Doublet of canker and chancre.

adj/ˈkænsə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkæːnsə/Australia/ˈkænsɚ/General-American
  1. Extremely unpleasant and annoying.

    offensive · slang · vulgar
    I used to love this game, but the new meta is straight up cancer.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Latin cancer (“crab”), a calque of Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab; ulcer; cancer”), possibly cognate, applied to cancerous tumors because of a supposed resemblence between their enlarged veins and the legs of a crab. Doublet of canker and chancre.

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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.