cancer

See also Cancer, cáncer, Cáncer, càncer, and câncer

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Latin cancer (“crab”), from Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkinos "crab"); applied to cancerous tumors because the enlarged veins resembled the legs of a crab.

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˈkænsə/
• (Australia) IPA: /ˈkæːnsə/
• (GenAm) IPA: /ˈkænsɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ænsə(r)

Noun

cancer (plural cancers)

1. (medicine, oncology, pathology) A disease in which the cells of a tissue undergo uncontrolled (and often rapid) proliferation.

Synonyms

• (a disease): growth, malignancy, neoplasia

Hyponyms

• tumor
• leukaemia, leukemia

Derived terms

types of cancer

bowel cancer breast cancer colon cancer leukemia testicular cancer

lung cancer prostate cancer ovarian cancer skin cancer cervical cancer

Related terms

• Cancer
• cancerization
• cancerize
• cancerous
• canker
• precancerous

Translations

disease of uncontrolled cellular proliferation

Albanian: kancer (sq) Arabic: سرطان (ar) (saraTaan) m. Armenian: քաղցկեղ (hy) (k'aġc'keġ) Azeri: xərçəng (az) Bosnian: rak (bs) m. Bulgarian: рак (bg) (rak) m. Catalan: càncer (ca) m. Cherokee: ᎠᏓᏰᏍᎩ (chr) (adayesgi) Chinese: Mandarin: 癌癥 (cmn), 癌症 (cmn) (áizhèng), 毒瘤 (cmn) (dúliú), 惡性腫瘤 (cmn), 恶性肿瘤 (cmn) (èxìng zhǒngliú)l Croatian: rak (hr) m. Czech: rakovina (cs) f. Danish: kræft (da) Dutch: kanker (nl) Esperanto: kancero (eo) Estonian: vähktõbi (et) Faroese: krabbamein (fo) n. Finnish: syöpä (fi) French: cancer (fr) m. Georgian: კიბო (ka) (kibo) German: Krebs (de) Greek: καρκίνος (el) (karkínos) m. Hebrew: סרטן (he) Hungarian: rák (hu) Icelandic: krabbamein (is) n., krabbi (is) m. (colloquial) Indonesian: kanker (id) Irish: ailse (ga) f. Italian: cancro (it) m. Japanese: 癌 (ja) (がん, gan), 悪性腫瘍 (ja) (あくせい しゅよう, akusei shuyō), 悪性新生物 (ja) (あくせいしんせいぶつ, akusei shinseibutsu)

Korean: 암 (ko) (am) Kurdish: Sorani: سه‌ره‌تان (ku) (saratAn) Latvian: vēzis (lv) Lithuanian: vėžys (lt) Malay: barah (ms), kanser (ms) Navajo: łóód doo nádziihii, naałdzid Norwegian: kreft (no) Persian: سرطان (fa) (saratân), نج (fa) Polish: nowotwór złośliwy (pl) m. Portuguese: câncer (pt) m. Romanian: cancer (ro) Russian: рак (ru) (rak) m., (med.) злокачественная опухоль (ru) (zlokáčestvennaja ópuxol’) f. Scottish Gaelic: aillse (gd) f. Serbian: Cyrillic: рак (sr) m. Roman: rak (sr) m. Slovak: rak (sk) m. Spanish: cáncer (es) m. Swahili: saratani (sw) Swedish: cancer (sv) c. Thai: มะเร็ง (th) (máreng) Turkish: kanser (tr) Uyghur: please add this translation if you can: (raki) Vietnamese: ung thư (vi) Welsh: cancr (cy) Yiddish: די עמעסע מעשׂה (yi) (di emeseh mayseh) f., די יענע מעשׂה (yi) (di yeneh mayseh) f., ראַק (yi)

See also

• malignant

Anagrams

• crance

---

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cancer.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

cancer m. (plural cancers)

1. cancer

---

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *geng- (“lump”).

Noun

cancer (genitive cancrī); m, second declension

1. a crab
2. a tumor, cancer
3. lattice, grid, or barrier

Inflection

Number	Singular	Plural
nominative	cancer	cancrī
genitive	cancrī	cancrōrum
dative	cancrō	cancrīs
accusative	cancrum	cancrōs
ablative	cancrō	cancrīs
vocative	cancer 1	cancrī

¹ May also be cancre.

Descendants

English: cancer French: cancer, cancre Italian: cancro, granchio (through dative) Old French: chancre

Portuguese: cancro Romanian: cancer Spanish: cáncer, cancro, cangrejo (through diminutive), cangro

---

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin, French cancer.

Noun

cancer n.

1. cancer

---

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

cancer c.

1. (medicine, oncology, pathology) cancer

Declension

Declension of cancer

	singular		plural
Common	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	cancer	cancern	cancrar	cancrarna
genitive	cancers	cancerns	cancrars	cancrarnas

Usage notes

• Until circa 1970, the word kräfta was also used.

Related terms

• cancersvulst
• bröstcancer
• hudcancer
• lungcancer

References

• cancer in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)