Word Of The Day

Dorland's Word of the Day is a great way to broaden your knowledge of medical terminology. With a new and interesting term brought to you from the 32nd edition of Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary each day, it's an easy and fun way to increase your medical vocabulary!

You can view a new word on this website each day.

Today's Word

detachment of retina

separation of the inner layers of the retina (neural retina) from the pigment epithelial layer; called also ablatio retinae and amotio retinae.

Word of the Day Archive

high-frequency hearing loss

sensorineural hearing loss of tones at high frequencies, most commonly seen with noise-induced hearing loss.

Brainerd diarrhea

self-limited diarrhea of acute onset and a duration of more than four weeks (and sometimes a year or more), characterized by explosive, watery diarrhea, typically 10–20 episodes a day, often accompanied by gas, mild abdominal cramping, and fatigue; systemic symptoms are rare. The causative agent is unknown, but outbreaks have been associated with the consumption of unpasteurized milk and inadequately treated water.

desmoglein

any of a family of cadherins (a group of related calcium-dependent cell adhesion molecules) found in desmosomes; they are the target of autoantibodies in pemphigus foliaceus and pemphigus vulgaris.

systematic sampling

selection of study objects conducted when an ordered list of all members of the population is available; subjects are chosen from the list at a given uniform interval from each other, using a starting point that is selected randomly.

Hemiscorpius

a genus of scorpions of the family Hemiscorpiidae, found in southwestern Asia from the Arabian Peninsula to Pakistan. H. lepturus has a venomous bite that causes serious skin wounds.

cortical ring sign

ring-shaped appearance of the cortex of the scaphoid bone on radiography of the wrist, caused by abnormal orientation of the scaphoid following disruption of the scaphoid ligament; a sign of scapholunate dislocation. Called also signet ring sign.

traction retinal detachment

retinal detachment caused by traction exerted by a pathologic condition that alters the vitreous body or some other nearby structure, such as hemorrhage, inflammation, or trauma.