ultrasound

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-

Latin ūls

Proto-Indo-European *-teros?

Latin -ter

Old Latin -ād

Latin -ā

Latin ultrābor.

English ultra-

English sound

English ultrasound

From ultra- + sound.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʌl.tɹə.saʊnd/
  • (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɔl.t͡ʃɹə.sæɔnd/, [ɔʊ̯.t͡ʃɹə.sæɔ̯nd], [ɔɫ.t͡ʃɹə.sæɔ̯nd]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

ultrasound (countable and uncountable, plural ultrasounds)

2. (physics) Sound with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing, which is approximately 20 kilohertz.

   Antonym: infrasound

   Hypernym: sound

4. (metonymic, chiefly informal) Ultrasonography.
   2. Medical ultrasonography.
5. Therapeutically applied ultrasonic energy.
   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

     Ultrasound as a treatment for degenerative arthritis was in its infancy. It might eventually turn out to be as effective as the Salk vaccine, or as bogus as the science of phrenology.

   • 2007 December 3, Christy Lemire, “Review: "Juno" A Small Comic Charmer”, in CBS News‎^[1]:

     But after a few visits to share details about ultrasounds and such, Juno and Mark find they have similar interests in music and movies - and Juno does have extraordinary tastes for someone her age, from the songs of Iggy and the Stooges to the horror flicks of Dario Argento.

   • 2018 January 18, Jürgen Götz, “Why it’s so hard to treat dementia”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     It’s estimated only 0.1% of antibodies circulating in the bloodstream enter the brain – this also includes the therapeutic antibodies currently used in clinical trials. An approach my team is taking is to use ultrasound to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier, which increases the uptake of Alzheimer’s drugs or antibody fragments.

Derived terms

• 3D ultrasound
• 4D ultrasound
• nonultrasound
• preultrasound
• teleultrasound
• ultrasonosurgery

Related terms

• ultrasonic, ultrasonics

Translations

sound

• Afrikaans: ultraklank
• Albanian: ultratingull (sq) m
• Arabic: الْمَوْجَات فَوْقَ الصَّوْتِيَّة f pl (al-mawjāt fawqa ṣ-ṣawtiyya)
• Armenian: ուլտրաձայն (hy) (ultrajayn)
• Asturian: ultrasoníu m
• Azerbaijani: ultrasəs
• Bashkir: ультразвук (ulʹtrazvuk)
• Basque: ultrasoinu
• Belarusian: ультрагу́к m (ulʹtrahúk)
• Bengali: শ্রবণাতীত শব্দ (srobnatit śobdo)
• Bulgarian: ултразву́к m (ultrazvúk)
• Burmese: နှုန်းလွန်အသံလှိုင်း (hnun:lwan-a.samhluing:)
• Catalan: ultrasò m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 超聲波 / 超声波 (ciu¹ sing¹ bo¹), 超音波 (ciu¹ jam¹ bo¹)

  Hokkien: 超音波 (zh-min-nan) (chhiau-im-pho)

  Mandarin: 超聲波 / 超声波 (zh) (chāoshēngbō), 超音波 (zh) (chāoyīnbō)

• Cornish: ughson m
• Czech: ultrazvuk (cs) m
• Danish: ultralyd (da) c
• Dhivehi: އަލްޓްރާ ސައުންޑް (alṭrā saun̊ḍ)
• Dutch: ultrageluid n
• Esperanto: ultrasono
• Estonian: ultraheli
• Finnish: ultraääni (fi)
• French: ultrason (fr) m
• Galician: ultrasón (gl) m
• Georgian: ულტრაბგერა (ulṭrabgera)
• German: Ultraschall (de) m
• Greek: υπέρηχος (el) m (ypérichos)
• Hebrew: אולטרה סאונד
• Hindi: अल्ट्रासाउंड (alṭrāsāuṇḍ)
• Hungarian: ultrahang (hu)
• Interlingua: ultrasono
• Italian: ultrasuono (it) m
• Japanese: 超音波 (ja) (ちょうおんぱ, chōonpa)
• Kannada: ಅಲ್ಟ್ರಾಸೌಂಡ್ (alṭrāsauṇḍ)
• Kazakh: ультрадыбыс (ultradybys)
• Khmer: អ៊ុលត្រាសោន (ʼultraasaon)
• Korean: 초음파(超音波) (ko) (cho'eumpa)
• Kyrgyz: ультразвук (ultrazvuk), ультра үн (ultra ün)
• Latvian: ultraskaņa f
• Lithuanian: ultragarsas m
• Luxembourgish: Ultraschall m
• Macedonian: ултразвук m (ultrazvuk)
• Malay: ultrabunyi
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: хэт авиа (xet avia); хэт долгион (xet dolgion) (Inner Mongolia)

  Mongolian script: ᠬᠡᠲᠦ
  ᠠᠪᠢᠶ᠎ᠠ (ketü abiy-a); ᠬᠡᠲᠦ
  ᠳᠣᠯᠭᠢᠶᠠᠨ (ketü dolgiyan) (Inner Mongolia)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ultralyd (no) n

  Nynorsk: ultraljod n

• Persian: فراصوت (fa) (farâ-sowt)
• Polish: ultradźwięk (pl) m
• Portuguese: ultrassom (pt) m
• Punjabi:

  Western Punjabi: الٹرا ساؤنڈ

• Romanian: ultrasunet (ro) n
• Russian: ультразву́к (ru) m (ulʹtrazvúk)
• Sami:

  Northern Sami: ultrajietna

• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: у̏лтразвӯк m

  Latin: ȕltrazvūk (sh) m

• Slovak: ultrazvuk m
• Slovene: ultrazvok m
• Spanish: ultrasonido (es) m
• Swedish: ultraljud (sv) n
• Tagalog: lakdawnugan
• Tajik: ультрасадо (ultrasado)
• Tamil: மீயொலி (mīyoli)
• Tatar: ультратавыш (ulʹtratawış)
• Telugu: అతిధ్వనులు (te) (atidhvanulu)
• Thai: อัลตราซาวนด์ (an-dtrâa-saao), อัลตร้าซาวด์ (an-dtrâa-saao)
• Turkish: ultrason (tr), yansılanım (tr)
• Turkmen: ultrases
• Ukrainian: ультразву́к (uk) m (ulʹtrazvúk)
• Urdu: بالا صَوت (bālā saut)
• Uzbek: ultratovush (uz)
• Vietnamese: siêu âm (vi)
• Welsh: uwchsain f
• Yakut: ультразвук (ulʹtrazvuk)
• Yiddish: אולטראַשאַל (ultrashal)

use of ultrasound

• Finnish: ultraäänihoito (therapy); ultraäänitutkimus (fi), ultraäänikuvaus (diagnosis), ultraääni (fi)
• Italian: ecografia (it) f
• Spanish: ultrasonido (es) m

Verb

ultrasound (third-person singular simple present ultrasounds, present participle ultrasounding, simple past and past participle ultrasounded)

1. (ambitransitive) To treat with ultrasound.

Hyponyms

• ultrasonicate

Anagrams

• undulators