congenital heart defect
4
3.9
- noun
- /kənˈdʒɛnɪtəl hɑrt dɪˈfɛkt/
- Specialized
:
defecto cardíaco congénito
- Some hospitals have started screening for critical congenital heart defects.
- born with a congenital heart defect
Examples
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She has learning and speech difficulties, which do not scare me, a congenital heart defect, which does not scare me (there are some that do!), and some physical features that are indicative that she is "different," which also does not scare me.
Blog text (3) -
This screening is called newborn screening and includes a blood test, hearing screening, and, in some hospitals, screening for critical congenital heart defects.
Blog text (29) -
Tiana had a congenital heart defect.
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Even with the medical thing—my son was born with a congenital heart defect that required open-heart surgery when he was 3 days old.
Blog text (33) -
In it, Montana resident Bing Perrine describes the extent to which he's ended up in crippling six-figure debt from treatment of a congenital heart defect and a lack of health insurance.
Blog text (14) -
After discovering that he had a congenital heart defect at our 20-week ultrasound, I was evaluated by the doctors in CHOP's Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment and followed by those doctors for several months.
Blog text (16) -
More recently, van Beynum et al. (2008) suggested a possible gene-environment interaction effect leading to an increased risk of congenital heart defects in mothers exposed to nitric oxide and smoking.
Academic text (2014) -
When he was born, they told us that he had a congenital heart defect.
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About half of babies with Down syndrome are born with congenital heart defects.
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Reagan was born in 2005 with a rare congenital heart defect and needed several critical surgeries.
Synonyms
30
3.2
A health problem a baby has when they are born
3
4.2
A problem in the body or how it works that is present at birth
1
6.0
A body or organ problem present when a baby is born
1
5.4
A health problem in the body or the way it works that is present when a baby is born
1
4.3
A health problem present when a baby is born
1
4.9
A health problem a person has at birth, often from parents' genes or events before birth
Surface Forms
Morphology
congenital + heart + defect
The phrase's meaning is transparently compositional: 'congenital' (present at birth) + 'heart' (the cardiac organ) + 'defect' (a flaw) directly yields 'a heart problem present at birth.' This construction maps closely to equivalent phrases in many other languages and follows regular English noun-modifier composition, so a B1 learner who knows the component words will understand it.
Etymology
The noun congenital heart defect describes a baby who is born with a small problem in the heart, a defect, because congenital means 'present at birth', so the phrase means a heart problem the baby has from the start.