diabetes
/ˌdaɪəˈbitiz/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.17 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Diabetes mellitus; any of a group of metabolic diseases whereby a person (or other animal) has high blood sugar due to an inability to produce, or inability to metabolize, sufficient quantities of the hormone insulin.
Uncountable
noun
Diabetes insipidus; any condition characterized by excessive or incontinent urine, now specifically as caused by impaired production of, or response to, the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "In the UK, one in 10 people over 40 live with type 2 diabetes, while one in four have high blood pressure, a condition described as a “silent killer” because it increases the risk of heart attack and stroke but rarely causes symptoms beforehand."
- "This milkshake is pure diabetes, as my friends and I agreed on as a joke when we first came to Black Tap."
- "A Sheeps or Goats bladder being burnt, and the ashes given inwardly, helps the Diabetes, or continuall pissing."
- "The lady laboured under a Diabetes, in consequence of having used the waters injudiciously for another complaint; and, that she might not be an impediment to the carriage, by ordering it to halt,as often as she should have occasion to disembogue, she had provided herself with a leathern contrivance […]."
Etymology
From Latin diabētēs (“siphon”), from Ancient Greek διαβήτης (diabḗtēs), from Ancient Greek διαβαίνω (diabaínō, “to pass through”).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *gʷem-, diabētēs, διαβήτης, διαβαίνω
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌdaɪəˈbitiz/
- British English: /ˌdaɪəˈbiːtiːz/