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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

cancerous en · ADJ

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkænsəɹəs/
  • (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English cancerous, from Latin cancerōsus, from cancer (“crab; tumor, cancer”) + -ōsus (adjective-forming suffix). By surface analysis, cancer + -ous.

Meanings

  1. Relating to or affected with cancer.
    • A pilot study conducted in 2023 by the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Erlangen University Hospital in Germany involved 104 patients and concluded that clinical breast examinations by MTEs who were visually impaired were as accurate in identifying potentially cancerous tumors as doctors trained in this procedure. 2024 September 8, Kamala Thiagarajan, “Women who are blind play a critical role in identifying possible breast cancers”, in NPR:
    • On Sunday at five they operated to remove the cancerous kidney. 2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 368:
  2. (figuratively) Growing or spreading rapidly to the point of harm.
  3. (derogatory, slang) Extremely unpleasant; detestable.
    • I love this show, but the fanbase is so toxic and cancerous.

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
most cancerous Degree=Sup lexicographic
more cancerous Degree=Cmp lexicographic

Antonyms

noncancerous

Deriveds

cancerously · cancerousness · precancerous · anticancerous · paracancerous · uncancerous · procancerous · noncancerous · pericancerous

Relateds

cancer

Synonyms

pure cancer · cancer · AIDS

Translations (18)

ru ра́ковый (relating to or affected with cancer) · fr cancéreux (relating to or affected with cancer) · it canceroso (relating to or affected with cancer) · nrf chancreux (relating to or affected with cancer) · fi syöpäinen (relating to or affected with cancer) · ca cancerós (relating to or affected with cancer) · de krebsartig (relating to or affected with cancer) · ar سَرَطَانِيّ (relating to or affected with cancer) · pt canceroso (relating to or affected with cancer) · gl canceroso (relating to or affected with cancer) · es canceroso (relating to or affected with cancer) · ru злока́чественный (growing or spreading rapidly to the point of harm) · tr kanserli (relating to or affected with cancer) · ro canceros (relating to or affected with cancer) · eo kancera (relating to or affected with cancer) · ga ailseach (relating to or affected with cancer) · cy canseraidd (relating to or affected with cancer) · cs rakovinný (relating to or affected with cancer)