symptom

See also: Symptom

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (súmptōma, “a happening, accident, symptom of disease”), from stem of συμπίπτω (sumpíptō, “Ι befall”), from συν- (sun-, “together”) + πίπτω (píptō, “I fall”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪm(p)təm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: symp‧tom

Noun

symptom (plural symptoms)

1. (medicine) A perceived change in some function, sensation or appearance of a person that indicates a disease or disorder, such as fever, headache or rash; strictly, a symptom is felt or experienced by the patient, while a sign can be detected by an observer.

   The doctor told that his coughing and sneezing was the symptom of standing for too long in the rain.

   Swollen breasts, morning sickness, and a missed period are classic symptoms of pregnancy.

2. (figuratively) A signal; anything that indicates, or is characteristic of, the presence of something else, especially of something undesirable.

   Lying, hiding one's true feelings, and having affairs are typical symptoms of a doomed marriage.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 114–115:

     "Nay, nay," exclaimed Lord Norbourne, "I cannot go quite so far as that. I have, thanks to your hospitality, laid in a stock of health enough for the ensuing winter: but as to the general benevolence of which you talk, I confess I find no symptoms: if I did, they would alarm me more than those of the gout."

   • 2009, Charles Zastrow, Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare:

     Some people see birth outside of marriage as a social problem—a sign of a breakdown in the traditional family and a symptom of moral decay.

Synonyms

• indication
• manifestation
• sign, signal
• See also Thesaurus:symptom

Antonyms

• Treatment of symptoms versus treatment of cause

Derived terms

• BLIPS
• cardinal symptom
• monosodium glutamate symptom complex
• MSG symptom complex
• Pratt's symptom
• rational symptom
• somatic symptom disorder
• symptomatology
• symptom journal
• symptomless
• Uhthoff's symptom
• withdrawal symptom

Related terms

• asymptomatic
• asymptote
• symptomatic

Translations

something that indicates a disease or disorder

• Albanian: simptomë (sq) f
• Arabic: عَرَض (ar) m (ʕaraḍ), عَلَامَة (ar) f (ʕalāma)
• Armenian: ախտանիշ (hy) (axtaniš)
• Asturian: síntoma m
• Azerbaijani:

  Abjad: علامت (ælāmæt)

  Roman: simptom, əlamət (az), nişanə (az)

• Belarusian: сімпто́м m (simptóm), сымпто́м m (symptóm), адзна́ка f (adznáka)
• Bengali: লক্ষণ (bn) (lokkhon)
• Bulgarian: симпто́м (bg) m (simptóm), при́знак (bg) m (príznak)
• Burmese: လက္ခဏာ (my) (lakhka.na), အဆင် (my) (a.hcang)
• Catalan: símptoma (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 症狀 / 症状 (zh) (zhèngzhuàng), 病徵 / 病征 (zh) (bìngzhēng), 病象 (zh) (bìngxiàng), 病狀 / 病状 (zh) (bìngzhuàng), 症候 (zh) (zhènghòu)

• Czech: příznak (cs) m, symptom (cs) m
• Danish: symptom (da) n
• Dutch: symptoom (nl) n
• Esperanto: simptomo (eo)
• Estonian: sümptom
• Finnish: oire (fi)
• French: symptôme (fr) m
• Georgian: სიმპტომი (simṗṭomi)
• German: Symptom (de) n
• Greek: σύμπτωμα (el) n (sýmptoma)

  Ancient: σύμπτωμα n (súmptōma)

• Hebrew: תַּסְמִין (he) m (tasmín), סִימְפּטוֹם (he) m (simptóm)
• Hindi: लक्षण (hi) m (lakṣaṇ), अलामत (hi) f (alāmat)
• Hungarian: tünet (hu), szimptóma (hu)
• Icelandic: einkenni n
• Indonesian: gejala (id), simtom (id)
• Italian: sintomo (it) m
• Japanese: 症状 (ja) (しょうじょう, shōjō), 症候 (ja) (しょうこう, shōkō)
• Kazakh: әйгіленіс (äigılenıs), симптом (simptom)
• Khmer: រោគសញ្ញា (rook saññaa), សញ្ញា (km) (saññaa)
• Korean: 증상(症狀) (ko) (jeungsang), 증후(症候) (jeunghu)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: berjeng (ku), nişan (ku), elamet (ku)

• Kyrgyz: симптом (simptom)
• Lao: ອາການ (ʼā kān)
• Latvian: simptoms m
• Lithuanian: simptomas m, požymis (lt) m
• Macedonian: симптом m (simptom)
• Malay: gejala (ms), simptom (ms)
• Maori: tohumate, putanga, tohu māuiui
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: тэмдэг (mn) (temdeg), шинж тэмдэг (šinž temdeg)

• Niuean: fakamailoga
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: symptom (no) n

  Nynorsk: symptom n

• Occitan: simptòma (oc) m
• Ottoman Turkish: علامت (ʼalamet), اعراضی (aʼrâzî)
• Pashto: علامه (ps) f ('alāma), نشانه (ps) f (nešāna)
• Persian: عَلامَت (fa) ('alâmat), نِشانِه (fa) (nešâne), سَمپتوم (samptôm)
• Polish: objaw (pl) m inan, symptom (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: sintoma (pt)
• Romanian: simptom (ro) n
• Russian: симпто́м (ru) m (simptóm), при́знак (ru) m (príznak)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сѝмпто̄м m

  Roman: sìmptōm (sh) m

• Slovak: príznak m, symptóm m
• Slovene: simptom m
• Spanish: síntoma (es) m
• Swedish: symtom (sv) n, symptom (sv) n (dated)
• Tagalog: tandang-sakit, pangitain
• Tajik: аломат (tg) (alomat), нишона (nišona), симптом (simptom)
• Thai: อาการ (th) (aa-gaan)
• Turkish: semptom (tr), belgi (tr), belirti (tr), bulgu (tr)
• Turkmen: alamat (tk), simptom
• Ukrainian: симпто́м m (symptóm), озна́ка (uk) f (oznáka)
• Urdu: عَلامَت f ('alāmat)
• Uyghur: ئالامەت (alamet), سىمپتوم (simptom)
• Uzbek: simptom (uz), alomat (uz), nishona (uz)
• Vietnamese: triệu chứng (vi) (兆症), chứng trạng (症状)
• Welsh: amlygiad m
• Zazaki: semptom, elemat, asante

figuratively: indicator of something

• Arabic: عَرَض (ar) m (ʕaraḍ)
• Asturian: síntoma m
• Belarusian: адзна́ка f (adznáka), сімпто́м m (simptóm), сымпто́м m (symptóm), знак (be) m (znak)
• Bulgarian: при́знак (bg) m (príznak), симпто́м (bg) m (simptóm)
• Catalan: símptoma (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 徵兆 / 征兆 (zh) (zhēngzhào)

• Czech: příznak (cs) m
• Dutch: symptoom (nl) n, verschijnsel (nl) n
• Esperanto: simptomo (eo)
• Estonian: sümptom
• Finnish: oire (fi)
• French: symptôme (fr) m, indice (fr) m
• Galician: síntoma (gl) m
• German: Symptom (de) n, Anzeichen (de) n
• Greek: σύμπτωμα (el) n (sýmptoma)
• Hebrew: תַּסְמִין (he) m (tasmín), סִימְפּטוֹם (he) m (simptóm)
• Hindi: लक्षण (hi) m (lakṣaṇ)
• Hungarian: tünet (hu)
• Indonesian: gejala (id)
• Italian: sintomo (it) m
• Japanese: 記号 (ja) (きごう, kigō), 兆候 (ja) (ちょうこう, chōkō)
• Khmer: សញ្ញា (km) (saññaa)
• Korean: 징후(徵候) (ko) (jinghu)
• Latvian: simptoms m
• Malay: gejala (ms), simptom (ms)
• Malayalam: രോഗലക്ഷണം (rōgalakṣaṇaṁ)
• Maori: putanga
• Occitan: simptòma (oc) m
• Persian: سَمپتوم (samptôm), اَثَر (fa) (asar), عَرَض (fa) ('araz)
• Polish: symptom (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: sintoma (pt) f
• Romanian: simptom (ro) n
• Russian: при́знак (ru) m (príznak), симпто́м (ru) m (simptóm), знак (ru) m (znak)
• Slovak: príznak m
• Slovene: znamenje (sl) n, znak (sl) m
• Spanish: síntoma (es) m
• Swedish: symtom (sv) n, symptom (sv) n (dated)
• Turkish: belirti (tr), semptom (tr), sendrom (tr), araz (tr)
• Ukrainian: озна́ка (uk) f (oznáka), симпто́м m (symptóm), знак m (znak)
• Vietnamese: triệu chứng (vi) (兆症)
• Welsh: arwydd (cy) m or f
• Zazaki: araz

Further reading

• “symptom”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “symptom”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from German Symptom from Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (súmptōma, “a happening, accident, symptom of disease”), from stem of συμπίπτω (sumpíptō, “Ι befall”), from συν- (sun-, “together”) + πίπτω (píptō, “I fall”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈsɪmptom]
• IPA^(key): [ˈsɪmptoːm]

Noun

symptom m inan

1. symptom

   Synonym: příznak

Declension

Declension of symptom (hard masculine inanimate)

	singular	plural
nominative	symptom	symptomy
genitive	symptomu	symptomů
dative	symptomu	symptomům
accusative	symptom	symptomy
vocative	symptome	symptomy
locative	symptomu	symptomech
instrumental	symptomem	symptomy

Related terms

• symptomatický

Further reading

• “symptom”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “symptom”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “symptom”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Danish

Noun

symptom n (singular definite symptomet, plural indefinite symptomer)

1. symptom

Declension

Declension of symptom

neuter gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	symptom	symptomet	symptomer	symptomerne
genitive	symptoms	symptomets	symptomers	symptomernes

Derived terms

• symptomfri

Related terms

• symptomatisk

References

• “symptom” in Den Danske Ordbog

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (súmptōma, “chance, casualty; symptom”), from συμπίπτω (sumpíptō, “Ι befall”) (with the suffix, -μα (-ma), from Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥), from both συν- (sun-, “with, together”), from σύν (sún, “beside, with”), from Proto-Indo-European *som-, from *sem- (“together, one”), or possibly from *ḱóm (“beside, near, by, with”), from *ḱe + and from πίπτω (píptō, “to fall”), from Proto-Indo-European *pípth₂-, from *peth₂- (“to spread out, fly”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sʏmpˈtuːm/
• Rhymes: -uːm
• Hyphenation: symp‧tom

Noun

symptom n (definite singular symptomet, indefinite plural symptom or symptomer, definite plural symptoma or symptomene)

1. symptom

Derived terms

• abstinenssymptom

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

symptom n (definite singular symptomet, indefinite plural symptom, definite plural symptoma)

1. symptom

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from French symptôme.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɘm.ptɔm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɘmptɔm
• Syllabification: sym‧ptom

Noun

symptom m inan

1. (literary, medicine) symptom (something that indicates a disease or disorder)

   Synonyms: objaw, zwiastun

2. (figurative, literary) symptom (indicator of something)

   Synonyms: objaw, oznaka, przejaw, sygnał, symptomat

Declension

Declension of symptom

	singular	plural
nominative	symptom	symptomy
genitive	symptomu	symptomów
dative	symptomowi	symptomom
accusative	symptom	symptomy
instrumental	symptomem	symptomami
locative	symptomie	symptomach
vocative	symptomie	symptomy

Further reading

• symptom in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• symptom in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Swedish

Etymology

In the Swedish language since 1730. From Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (súmptōma, “a happening, accident, symptom of disease”).

Noun

symptom n

1. dated form of symtom (“symptom”)

Declension

Declension of symptom

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	symptom	symptoms
	definite	symptomet	symptomets
plural	indefinite	symptom	symptoms
	definite	symptomen	symptomens