Skip to main content
chemo

chemo

121 3.8
Treatment for cancer using strong drugs to kill cancer cells
  • noun
  • /ˈkiːmoʊ/
  • Informal
translation icon : quimio
  • So I was talking to Dionne and she just finished up her chemo treatment like a week ago.
  • chemo and radiation
  • a round of chemo
  • get chemo

I have to go get my dad from chemo in New York City.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • I spent a lot of time with Mom that year down in Florida as she struggled through her chemo and radiation.

  • I barely managed the first round of chemo.

  • I have to go get my dad from chemo in New York City.

  • So they were turning chemo patients away, cancer patients away.

  • But day after day of feeling bad in your body from chemo, boy, it's hard to be positive.

  • So that tells us the two rounds of chemo have worked well.

  • Then his mother got liver cancer, and with her chemo treatments, became too weak to help look after the kids.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • So they're going to have to start radiation and chemo next week, I believe.

  • This is the medicine for the nausea from the chemo.

  • My friend is feeling better after her last round of chemo to treat her cancer.

Synonyms

chemotherapy
vschemo
  • Specialized
97 4.1

A treatment that uses strong drugs to kill cancer cells or stop them growing

is the informal spoken name for that same medical treatment

Surface Forms

chemo singular
chemos plural

Etymology

The word chemo is a short form of chemotherapy and comes from the prefix chemo-, which means 'chemical' and is the same root as chemical and chemistry. So chemo refers to the cancer treatment that uses chemicals (drugs) to destroy cancer cells.