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''tuberculosis'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260320113731-00-⌔

tuberculosis - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

tuberculosis (countable and uncountable, plural tuberculoses)

  • (pathology) An infectious disease of humans and animals caused by a species of mycobacterium, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis, mainly infecting the lungs where it causes tubercles characterized by the expectoration of mucus and sputum, fever, weight loss, and chest pain, and transmitted through inhalation or ingestion of bacteria. [from 1839]
    • ✤ With smallpox gone, tuberculosis is today the deadliest infectious disease on the planet.1

Etymology

To international scientific vocabulary from New Latin tūberculōsis, from Latin tūberculum (diminutive of tūber (“lump”)) +‎ Latin -ōsis (“diseased condition”); by surface analysis, tubercul(um) +‎ -osis; named for the encapsulated colonies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the lungs in pulmonary tuberculosis, which can look like small tubers (tubercles) on gross pathology. The disease has existed throughout human experience and had other names for millennia before scientific medicine renamed it with a New Latin term in the mid-19th century (1840s); in English it was called consumption because of the wasting away that consumed health and seemed even to consume flesh in some cases (for example, causing fistulas and tissue breakdown).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /tʃuːˌbɜː(ɹ)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /tjuːˌbɜː(ɹ)kjʊˈləʊsɪs/
    • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American, Canada) IPA: /tuˌbɝkjʊˈloʊsɪs/, /tʊ-/
    • Audio (General American): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -əʊsɪs

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 380: ↩

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