migraine
/ˈmaɪɡɹeɪn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.33 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A severe, disabling headache, usually affecting only one side of the head, and often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, photophobia and visual disturbances.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "He had a headache so bad that he wished he was dead, but it was the sort of migraine that promised him he would continue to suffer but not die."
- "After consuming too much coffee every day for six weeks, she got severe migraines that would last up until 47 minutes after her first cup of coffee."
- "It was in 1976, during our first family holiday to Disneyland, California, that my family learned the difference between a headache and a migraine."
- "A team of international researchers has recently identified the first—ever genetic link to common migraine (common migraine refers to migraine without aura, and it is the most common type of migraine that occurs)."
- "2013, Health Press Publishing, Natural Therapies and Prevention for Headaches and Migraines, unnumbered page, Migraine headaches are fortunately suffered by a relatively small percentage of people, but for those who do suffer, migraines can literally take over their life."
- "Syncope is estimated to occur in bouts of headache in approximately 5% of adult patients with migraine."
Etymology
First appears c. 1425. A respelling (following French) of the late 14th century Middle English megrim, from the 13th century Old French migraigne, from Vulgar Latin pronunciation of Latin hemicrania (“a pain in one half of the head”), from Ancient Greek ἡμικρανία (hēmikranía), from ἡμι- (hēmi-, “hemi-, half”) + κρανίον (kraníon, “the skull”) (whence also cranium), a calque of Egyptian gs-tp (“a headache”), from gs (“half”) + tp (“the head”), although the link between the Egyptian magical papyri and the Greek ἡμικρανία (hēmikranía) could be purely incidental. Cognate to megrim, hemicrania.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *ḱerh₂-, megrim, migraigne, -, hemicrania, ἡμικρανία
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmaɪɡɹeɪn/
- British English: /ˈmaɪɡɹeɪn/