cancer

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

English

• Cancer on Wikipedia.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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkænsə/
• (Australia) IPA^(key): /ˈkæːnsə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkænsɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ænsə(ɹ)

Noun

cancer (plural cancers)

1. (medicine, oncology, pathology) A disease in which the cells of a tissue undergo uncontrolled (and often rapid) proliferation.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, Internal Combustion^[1]:

     If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the […] hazards of gasoline cars: air and water pollution, noise and noxiousness, constant coughing and the undeniable rise in cancers caused by smoke exhaust particulates.

   • 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76: 

     Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.

2. (figuratively) Something which spreads within something else, damaging the latter.

   1999, Bruce Clifford Ross-Larson, Effective Writing^[2], page 134:

   Sierra Leone's post-dictator problems are almost absurd in their breadth. It once exported rice; now it can't feed itself. The life span of the average citizen is 39, the shortest in Africa. Unemployment stands at 87 percent and tuberculosis is spreading out of control. Corruption, brazen and ubiquitous, is a cancer on the economy.

Synonyms

• (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

• Afrikaans: kanker
• Albanian: kancer
• Amharic: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: سرطان m (saraṭān)
• Aragonese: cáncer m
• Armenian: քաղցկեղ (kʿałcʿkeł)
• Asturian: cáncer m
• Azeri: xərçəng (az)
• Belarusian: рак m (rak)
• Bengali: ক্যান্সার (kænsar)
• Breton: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: рак (bg) m (rak)
• Burmese: ကင်ဆာရောဂါ (kang-hcarau:ga)
• Catalan: càncer m
• Cherokee: ᎠᏓᏰᏍᎩ (adayesgi)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 癌癥, 癌症 (zh) (áizhèng)

• Czech: rakovina (cs) f
• Danish: kræft (da)
• Dutch: kanker (nl)
• Esperanto: kancero
• Estonian: vähktõbi (et)
• Faroese: krabbamein n, krabbi m
• Finnish: syöpä (fi)
• French: cancer (fr) m
• Galician: cancro (gl) m, cáncer (gl) m
• Georgian: კიბო (kibo)
• German: Krebs (de) m
• Greek: καρκίνος (el) m (karkínos)
• Hebrew: סרטן (he) (sart'an)
• Hindi: कर्कट (karkaṭ), कैंसर (kainsar)
• Hungarian: rák (hu)
• Icelandic: krabbamein (is) n, krabbi (is) m (colloquial)
• Ido: kancero (io)
• Indonesian: kanker (id)
• Irish: ailse f
• Italian: cancro (it) m
• Japanese: 癌 (ja) (がん, gan)
• Jèrriais: cancèr m
• Khmer: កង់ស៊ែរ (kɑŋ sɛɛ)
• Korean: 암 (ko) (am)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: سه‌ره‌تان (ku) (saratân)

• Lao: ມະເຮັງ (mā héŋ)
• Latvian: vēzis (lv)
• Lithuanian: vėžys
• Luxembourgish: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: рак m (rak)
• Malay: barah, kanser
• Manx: kanghyr m
• Maori: mate pukupuku, pukupuku
• Mongolian: хорт хавдар (hort havdar)
• Navajo: łóód doo nádziihii, naałdzid
• Norwegian: kreft m, cancer m
• Occitan: càncer m
• Persian: سرطان (fa) (saratân), نج (fa), خرچنگ (fa) (xarčang)
• Polish: nowotwór złośliwy m
• Portuguese: câncer (pt) m
• Romanian: cancer (ro)
• Russian: рак (ru) m (rak), (med.) злокачественная опухоль f (zlokáčestvennaja ópuxol’)
• Scottish Gaelic: aillse f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: рак m

  Roman: rak m

• Slovak: rak m
• Slovene: rak (sl) m anim
• Somali: kansar
• Spanish: cáncer (es) m
• Swahili: saratani (sw)
• Swedish: cancer (sv) c
• Tajik: саратон (saraton)
• Tamil: புற்றுநோய் (ta) (puṟṟunōy)
• Telugu: కాన్సర్ (kānsar)
• Thai: มะเร็ง (máreng)
• Turkish: kanser (tr)
• Ukrainian: рак (uk) m (rak)
• Uyghur: please add this translation if you can: (raki)
• Vietnamese: ung thư (vi)
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Võro: vähktõbi, vähk
• Welsh: cancr
• Yiddish: עמעסע מעשׂה f (emese mayse), יענע מעשׂה f (yene mayse), ראַק (rak)

See also

• malignant

Anagrams

• crance

---

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cancer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɑ̃.sɛʁ/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

cancer m (plural cancers)

1. cancer

---

Latin

Etymology

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

Noun

cancer m (genitive cancrī); second declension

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

Inflection

Second declension, nominative singular in -er.

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

Descendants

• English: cancer
• French: cancer, cancre, chancre
• Italian: cancro, granchio (through dative)
• Jèrriais: cancèr

• Old French: chancre
• Portuguese: cancro, caranguejo
• Romanian: cancer
• Spanish: cáncer, cancro, cangrejo (through diminutive), cangro
• Walloon : crantche, cancer

---

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)