1-Stop Dictionary Reference

Atrophy

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. Pathology A wasting or decrease in size of a body organ, tissue, or part owing to disease, injury, or lack of use: muscular atrophy of a person affected with paralysis.

n. A wasting away, deterioration, or diminution: intellectual atrophy.

v. To cause to wither or deteriorate; affect with atrophy.

verb-intransitive. To waste away; wither or deteriorate.

Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A reduction in the functionality of an organ caused by disease, injury or lack of use.

v. To wither or waste away.

the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A wasting away from lack of nourishment; diminution in bulk or slow emaciation of the body or of any part.

v. To cause to waste away or become abortive; to starve or weaken.

verb-intransitive. To waste away; to dwindle.

The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. A wasting of the body, or of a part of it, owing to defective nutrition.

n. In botany and zoology, arrested development of an organ due to stoppage of growth at any stage by the operation of causes either external to or inherent in the organism.

To waste away.

WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

n. a decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse

n. any weakening or degeneration (especially through lack of use)

v. undergo atrophy

Word Usage

"His mother explained that his disease, spinal muscular atrophy, is gradually deteriorating his neuromuscular system so that every few months, he loses more of his ability to move."

Antonym

hypertrophy

Verb Form

atrophied atrophies atrophying

Hypernym

Words that are more generic or abstract

weakening shrivel wither shrink shrivel up

Cross Reference

granular atrophy of the kidney brown atrophy eccentric atrophy progressive muscular atrophy concentric atrophy

Variant

atrophied

Form