cancerous
/ˈkænsəɹəs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.15 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Growing or spreading rapidly to the point of harm.
Example Sentences
- "On Sunday at five they operated to remove the cancerous kidney."
- "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."
- "I love this show, but the fanbase is so toxic and cancerous."
Etymology
From Middle English cancerous, from Latin cancerōsus, from cancer (“crab; tumor, cancer”) + -ōsus (adjective-forming suffix). By surface analysis, cancer + -ous.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: cancerous, cancerōsus
Usage
Inflected Forms
more cancerous (comparative)
most cancerous (superlative)