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Glite Dictionary
agonal

agonal

2 9.9
Showing strong, uneven breathing and pain just before death
  • adjective
  • /ˈæɡənəl/
  • Specialized
: agonal
  • This might just be a case where the agonal spasms of ignorance dying are actually funny.
  • agonal breathing
  • agonal respiration
  • agonal breath

Examples

  • Expressive style represents another form of agonal agency in mahjong.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Dante's words of the agonal Pier della Vigna - FELL

    Fiction book (2001)

  • A "flat line" is an agonal event, often completely impossible.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Andy takes one agonal breath and dies.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • When the hospice nurse came in to check, she whispered to Anna's family, "She's having agonal breathing now."

    Fiction book (2001)

  • By thus situating agonistics in the play-ritual sphere, I incorporate the agonal impulse into the micropolitics of self and social production.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Agonal strategies by which men suspend the abeyance of agency and risk engaging luck as their mutable adversary are many, and here I name but a few.

    Academic text (2007)

  • It is important to assess for normal breathing, as in a stressful emergency situation, agonal breathing (labored, irregular breathing which may be seen in the dying patient) can be misinterpreted as a sign that the patient is breathing.

    Academic text (2012)

  • Not the pale, poly-agonal representation of the real supported by VR, although the attractiveness of immersive worlds is suggestive of the search for textual transcendence.

    Academic text (1999)

  • The patient's agonal breaths signaled that the end was near.

Synonyms

painful
vsagonal
670 1.0

Making someone feel physical hurt or strong emotional upset

is used for pain tied to dying rather than general discomfort
unbearable
vsagonal
84 3.9

Too painful or unpleasant to stand

is used for pain tied to dying rather than merely intolerable pain
excruciating
vsagonal
52 7.9

Causing very strong physical or mental pain

is used for pain tied to dying rather than just high intensity
agonizing
vsagonal
  • US
40 5.9

Causing very strong physical or emotional pain

is used for pain tied to dying rather than general intense pain
anguished
vsagonal
16 7.0

Feeling very upset and in deep emotional pain

is used for pain tied to dying rather than mainly emotional distress
agonized
vsagonal
  • US
5 6.3

Feeling very strong pain or deep worry

is used for pain tied to dying rather than visible suffering

How Painful

agonal
  • Specialized
2 9.9
agonizing
  • US
40 5.9
painful
670 1.0
uncomfortable
702 1.7
comfortable
488 1.0

Surface Forms

agonal positive

Morphology

agonal = agon (opaque) = agon + al

The word is analyzable as agon + -al, but the modern medical sense referring to death throes or severe pain is specialized and not straightforwardly predictable from the base.

Etymology

The word agonal comes from the same root as the common word agony, and from the old Greek agon, which meant 'struggle' or 'intense pain'. So agonal describes the strong pain or struggle that happens in the final moments of life.