Papanicolaou test
- noun
- /ˌpæpəˈnɪkəˌlaʊ ˌtɛst/
- Specialized
:
prueba de Papanicolaou
- The doctor recommended that she schedule a Papanicolaou test every year to monitor her cervical health.
Examples
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Women are encouraged to undergo a Papanicolaou test regularly to catch early signs of cervical cancer.
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After her last Papanicolaou test, her physician reassured her that there were no signs of abnormalities.
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In contrast, although lesbians reported lower rates of 2-year Papanicolaou tests than did heterosexual women in Los Angeles County, we did not observe sexual orientation differences in 3-year cervical cancer screening among Massachusetts women.
Academic text (2010)
Synonyms
12
4.3
A medical test in which a doctor takes cells from a woman's cervix to check for signs of cancer
3
3.7
A medical test that takes cells from the cervix to check for cancer or early changes
1
3.7
A medical test that checks cells from a woman's cervix for signs of cancer or other problems
A test that collects cells from the opening of a woman's womb to look for early cancer
A test that takes cells from the cervix to check for early signs of cancer
A sample of cells taken from the inside of a woman's birth canal to check for infection or unusual cells
Surface Forms
Morphology
Papanicolaou + test
While 'test' is a transparent noun, 'Papanicolaou' is an eponymic proper name with no lexical meaning that would indicate cervical cell examination to a learner. Because the specific medical sense (a cervical cancer screening) cannot be inferred from the constituents and is specialized vocabulary, a B1 learner who only knows the parts would not be able to derive the meaning.
Etymology
Papanicolaou test is named after Dr. Papanicolaou, who discovered that looking at tiny cells under a microscope could show disease early. So the Papanicolaou test is a simple 'check' of cells from the cervix to catch 'early signs of cervical cancer' before they become serious.