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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

surgery.

The act or process of medical intervention involving incisions to remove, repair, or replace a part of a body; an instance of this process (a procedure).

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsɜː.d͡ʒə.ɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɝ.d͡ʒə.ɹi/General-American
  1. The act or process of medical intervention involving incisions to remove, repair, or replace a part of a body; an instance of this process (a procedure).

    uncountable · usually
    Surgery is often necessary to prevent cancer from spreading.
  2. The medical specialty related to the performance of surgical procedures.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A room or department where surgery is performed.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A doctor's office; a clinic.

    UK · countable · uncountable
    I dropped in on the surgery as I was passing to show the doctor my hemorrhoids.
  5. A medical practitioner’s office hours.

    UK · countable · uncountable
  6. Any arrangement where people arrive and wait for an interview with certain people, particularly a politician. cf. clinic.

    UK · countable · uncountable
    Our MP will be holding a surgery in the village hall on Tuesday.
  7. A pre-packaged bankruptcy or "quick bankruptcy".

    countable · slang · uncountable
  8. The production of a manifold by removing parts of one manifold and replacing them with corresponding parts of others.

    countable · uncountable
  9. Drastic changes made to anything.

    broadly · countable · figuratively · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰes- Proto-Indo-European *-ōr Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰésōr Proto-Hellenic *kʰéhər Ancient Greek χείρ (kheír) Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *worǵós Proto-Hellenic *-worgós Ancient Greek -ουργός (-ourgós) Ancient Greek χειρουργός (kheirourgós) Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *-eyéti Proto-Indo-European *-esyéti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Ancient Greek -έω (-éō) Ancient Greek χειρουργέω (kheirourgéō) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek χειρουργίᾱ̆ (kheirourgíā̆)bor. Latin chīrūrgiader. Old French surgie Old French surgeriebor. Middle English surgerie English surgery From Middle English surgerie, from Old French surgerie, from Latin chirurgia, from Ancient Greek χειρουργία (kheirourgía), from χείρ (kheír, “hand”) + ἔργον (érgon, “work”). Doublet of chirurgy.

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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.