miscarriage

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *mey-?

Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂-der.

Proto-Germanic *missaz

Proto-Germanic *missa-

Proto-West Germanic *missa-

Old English mis-

Middle English mys-

English mis-

English carriage

English miscarriage

From mis- + carriage.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪskaɹɪd͡ʒ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪs.kæɹ.əd͡ʒ/, /ˈmɪs.kɛɹ.əd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US, Mary–marry–merry merger):

  (file)

Noun

miscarriage (countable and uncountable, plural miscarriages)

1. (now rare except in miscarriage of justice) A failure; a mistake or error. [from 16th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     for feare least blame / Of her miscarriage should in her be fond, / She wist not how t'amend, nor how it to withstond.

2. (medicine) The spontaneous natural termination of a pregnancy, especially before it is viable; the fatal expulsion of a foetus from the womb before term. [from 17th c.]

   Synonyms: pregnancy loss, spontaneous abortion

   • 2026 July 29, Nicholas Muhoro, “Amy Billig Vanished While Hitchhiking Through Coconut Grove. Then the Calls Began”, in Skip Boring‎^[1], archived from the original on 31 July 2026:

     Susan Billig had suffered four miscarriages before giving birth to her firstborn daughter, Amy […] .

Usage notes

• The death of an infant during labour or after it has become viable is generally called a stillbirth.

Derived terms

• antimiscarriage
• delayed miscarriage
• missed miscarriage
• silent miscarriage

Translations

natural termination of pregnancy

• Afrikaans: miskraam, ^{(please verify)} aborsie
• Albanian: abort (sq) m
• Ambonese Malay: miskrang
• Arabic: إِجْهَاض (ar) m (ʔijhāḍ), إِخْفَاق m (ʔiḵfāq), خَسَارَة f (ḵasāra), سقوط الجنين m (suqūṭ al-janīn)

  Egyptian Arabic: ^{(please verify)} إجهاض m (ʔeghāḍ)

• Armenian: վիժում (hy) (vižum)
• Basque: umegaltze, berezko abortu
• Belarusian: вы́кідыш m (výkidyš)
• Bengali: গর্ভস্রাব (bn) (gorbhosrab)
• Breton: golladenn
• Bulgarian: або́рт (bg) m (abórt), помя́тане (bg) n (pomjátane)
• Burmese: ^{(please verify)} ကိုယ်ဝန်ဖျက်ချမှု (kuiywanhpyakhkya.hmu.), ^{(please verify)} ကိုယ်ဝန်ဖျက်ချခြင်း (kuiywanhpyakhkya.hkrang:)
• Catalan: avortament espontani m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 流產 / 流产 (lau⁴ caan²)

  Hokkien: 流產 / 流产 (zh-min-nan) (liû-sán)

  Mandarin: 流產 / 流产 (zh) (liúchǎn), 小產 / 小产 (zh) (xiǎochǎn), 自然流產 / 自然流产 (zìrán liúchǎn) (medicine)

• Crimean Tatar: ^{(please verify)} abort
• Czech: potrat (cs) m
• Danish: abort (da) n
• Dutch: miskraam (nl) f, misdracht f, misgeboorte (nl) f, abortus (nl) m
• Esperanto: aborto (eo)
• Estonian: nurisünnitus (et)
• Faroese: fosturlát n
• Finnish: keskenmeno (fi)
• French: fausse couche (fr) f
• Galician: aborto (gl) m
• Georgian: მუცლის მოშლა (muclis mošla), მუცლის მოწყვეტა (muclis moc̣q̇veṭa)
• German: Fehlgeburt (de) f
• Greek: αποβολή (el) f (apovolí)

  Ancient Greek: ἀποφθορά f (apophthorá), ἔκτρωσις f (éktrōsis)

• Gujarati: કસુવાવડ f (kasuvāvaḍ)
• Hebrew: הַפָּלָה (he) f (hapalá)
• Hindi: गर्भस्राव m (garbhasrāv)
• Hungarian: vetélés (hu), ^{(please verify)} elvetélés (hu)
• Icelandic: fósturlát (is) n
• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} keguguran (id), ^{(please verify)} abortus (id)
• Irish: breith anabaí f, anabaíocht f
• Italian: aborto (it) m
• Japanese: 流産 (ja) (りゅうざん, ryūzan), 失敗 (ja) (しっぱい, shippai)
• Kannada: ಗರ್ಭಪಾತ (kn) (garbhapāta)
• Kapampangan: pamangikwan
• Kazakh: түсік (tüsik)
• Khmer: ការរលូតកូន (km) (kaa rɔluut koun)
• Korean: 유산(流産) (ko) (yusan), 류산(流産) (ko) (ryusan) (North Korea)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: لە بار چوون (le bar çûn)

• Lao: ^{(please verify)} ຄັບພະບາດ (khap pha bāt)
• Latin: abortus m, abortiō f
• Latvian: aborts m
• Lithuanian: persileidimas m
• Macedonian: пометнување n (pometnuvanje), спонтан або́ртус m (spontan abórtus)
• Malay: keguguran (ms)
• Malayalam: ഗർഭമലസൽ (gaṟbhamalasal)
• Manx: anappeeaght f
• Māori: materoto, tahe
• Marathi: गर्भस्राव (garbhasrāv)
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norman: fausse couoche f (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: spontan abort m, spontanabort (no) m, abort (no) m

  Nynorsk: spontan abort m, spontanabort m, abort m

• Odia: ସ୍ୱତଃ ଗର୍ଭପାତ (swataḥ garbhapāta)
• Old English: misbyrd f
• Persian: ^{(please verify)} سقط (fa) (seqt), ^{(please verify)} آفگانه (fa) (âfgâne)
• Plautdietsch: Fäljeburt f
• Polish: poronienie (pl) n
• Portuguese: aborto (pt) m, aborto espontâneo m
• Punjabi: ਗਰਭਪਾਤ (garbhapāt), ਗਰਭ ਗਿਰਨਾ (garabh girnā)
• Quechua: sulluy
• Romanian: avort (ro) n
• Russian: вы́кидыш (ru) m (výkidyš), ^{(please verify)} або́рт (ru) m (abórt)
• Sami:

  Northern Sami: cuovkaneapmi

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: по̏бача̄ј m

  Latin: pȍbačāj (sh) m

• Slovak: potrat (sk) m
• Slovene: spontani splav m
• Somali: dhicis
• Spanish: aborto (es) m, aborto espontáneo m, aborto natural m, aborto involuntario m
• Swahili: mimba kuharibika
• Swedish: missfall (sv) n, spontanabort (sv) c
• Tagalog: pagkaagas
• Tamil: கருச்சிதைவு (ta) (karuccitaivu)
• Tatar: бала төшерү (bala töşerü)
• Telugu: మిస్‍క్యారేజ్ (mis‍kyārēj), గర్భస్రావము (te) (garbhasrāvamu)
• Thai: การแท้ง (th) (gaan-tɛ́ng), การรีดลูก (gaan-rîit-lûuk)
• Turkish: düşük (tr), ceninisakıt (tr) (obsolete)
• Ukrainian: ви́кидень m (výkydenʹ)
• Urdu: اسقاط حمل (isqāt-e-haml), اسقاط (isqāt), وضع حمل (ur) (vaze-e-hamal), اخراجِ جنین (ixrāj-e-janīn)
• Uzbek: avort (uz)
• Vietnamese: sự sẩy thai (vi) (—胎 (vi))
• Welsh: camesgoriad m
• Yiddish: מפּלה f (mapole)

Further reading

• miscarriage on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Miscarriage in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)