ictus

See also: ictūs

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin ictus (“a blow”), from īco (“to hit, strike”).

Pronunciation

singular

• (UK) enPR: ĭkʹtəs, IPA^(key): /ˈɪktəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Homophones: ichthus, ichthys

plural

• (UK) enPR: ĭkʹto͞os, IPA^(key): /ˈɪktuːs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

ictus (plural ictus or ictuses or ictusses)

1. The pulse.
2. (medicine) A sudden attack, blow, stroke, or seizure, as in a sunstroke, the sting of an insect, pulsation of an artery, etc.
3. (prosody) The stress of voice laid upon an accented syllable of a word. Compare arsis.
4. (music) In conducting, the indication of a musical event, most often the beat of the tempo or the entry of a section of the orchestra.

Usage notes

• Rarely, the Latinate plural ictūs is found.

Derived terms

• ictogenic
• nonictus

Translations

Translations

• Spanish: ictus (es) m

Anagrams

• cutis, ustic

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin ictus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈik.tus]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Noun

ictus m (plural ictusos)

1. (medicine, music) ictus

Further reading

• “ictus”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin ictus (“a blow”), from the expression ictus apoplecticus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈik.tus/
• Rhymes: -iktus
• Hyphenation: ìc‧tus

Noun

ictus m (invariable)

1. (pathology) ictus, stroke

   Synonyms: infarto cerebrale, (familiar) colpo

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɪk.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈik.tus]

Etymology 1

From ī̆cō (“to strike”) +‎ -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs).

Noun

ictus m (genitive ictūs); fourth declension

1. a blow, stroke, stab, thrust, bite, sting

   Synonyms: vulnus, colaphus, pulsus, plāga

   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico VII.25:

     Ictu scorpionis

     By a blow of a scorpion

   1. a striking, playing on the lyre
   2. the stroke of a wing
   3. a stroke of lightning, lightning

      Synonyms: fulmen, fulgur

2. (prosody, music) a beating time, a beat
3. a beat of the pulse
4. an attack, shot

   Synonyms: impetus, incursio, aggressio, impressiō, invasio, appetītus, assultus, occursio, oppugnātiō, incursus, concursus, vīs, petītiō, procella

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	ictus	ictūs
genitive	ictūs	ictuum
dative	ictuī	ictibus
accusative	ictum	ictūs
ablative	ictū	ictibus
vocative	ictus	ictūs

Descendants

• Galician: eito, → ictus
• Portuguese: eito, → icto
• → English: ictus, ictal
• → Italian: itto, ictus
• →? Old Irish: icht (“deed”)
  • Middle Irish: icht

Etymology 2

Perfect passive participle of ī̆cō.

Participle

ictus (feminine icta, neuter ictum); first/second-declension participle

1. hit, struck, blown
2. stabbed, stung

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	ictus	icta	ictum		ictī	ictae	icta
genitive	ictī	ictae	ictī		ictōrum	ictārum	ictōrum
dative	ictō	ictae	ictō		ictīs
accusative	ictum	ictam	ictum		ictōs	ictās	icta
ablative	ictō	ictā	ictō		ictīs
vocative	icte	icta	ictum		ictī	ictae	icta

References

• “ictus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ictus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "ictus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “ictus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • struck by lightning: fulmine ictus
    

Anagrams

• cutis

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ictus or French ictus.

Noun

ictus n (plural ictusuri)

1. (medicine) ictus
2. (prosody) ictus
3. (music) ictus

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	ictus	ictusul	ictusuri	ictusurile
genitive-dative	ictus	ictusului	ictusuri	ictusurilor
vocative	ictusule		ictusurilor

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈiɡtus/ [ˈiɣ̞.t̪us]
• Rhymes: -iɡtus
• Syllabification: ic‧tus

Noun

ictus m (plural ictus)

1. (medicine) stroke, ictus

   Synonym: derrame

Further reading

• “ictus”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025