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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

symptom.

A perceived change in some function, sensation or appearance of a person that indicates a disease or disorder, such as fever, headache or rash; strictly, a symptom is felt or experienced by the patient, while a sign can be detected by an observer.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsɪm(p)təm/
  1. A perceived change in some function, sensation or appearance of a person that indicates a disease or disorder, such as fever, headache or rash; strictly, a symptom is felt or experienced by the patient, while a sign can be detected by an observer.

    The doctor told that his coughing and sneezing was the symptom of standing for too long in the rain.
    Swollen breasts, morning sickness, and a missed period are classic symptoms of pregnancy.
  2. A signal; anything that indicates, or is characteristic of, the presence of something else, especially of something undesirable.

    figuratively
    Lying, hiding one's true feelings, and having affairs are typical symptoms of a doomed marriage.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English sinthoma, from Medieval Latin sinthoma, altered by Late Latin symptoma, from Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (súmptōma, “a happening, accident, symptom of disease”), from stem of συμπίπτω (sumpíptō, “Ι befall”), from συν- (sun-, “together”) + πίπτω (píptō, “to fall”). See also syn-, -oma, -ome.

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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.