muscular dystrophy
8
5.3
- noun
- /ˈmʌskjələr ˈdɪstrəfi/
- Specialized
:
distrofia muscular
- Claire has muscular dystrophy, which means she experiences progressive muscle weakness.
- Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Maybe we should do simple diseases like sickle cell and muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis and Tay Sachs Huntington's.
- Maybe we should do simple diseases like sickle cell and muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis and Tay Sachs Huntington's.
- A family that has a kid dying muscular dystrophy needs someone like Vivek or me or someone like that to make a billion dollars saving their son's life.
Examples
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Gary wants to do something for muscular dystrophy research.
Academic text (1991) -
Claire has muscular dystrophy, which means severe muscle weakness.
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I think I may have muscular dystrophy.
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Are you completely up to date on all the muscular dystrophy research?
Fiction book (1993) -
My son passed away five years ago at the age of 21 from Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Blog text (27) -
Boston Children's Hospital diagnosed him as suffering from muscular dystrophy.
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Well, I've seen people with all kinds of health conditions, from muscular dystrophy to spinal cord injuries.
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Patients with muscular dystrophy, besides having abnormalities of the muscles in their in their skeleton, also wind up with problems with their heart muscle as well.
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Aidan suffers from a condition called Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which causes muscle degeneration.
Blog text (17) -
Some of the most known and publicized inheritable conditions are Tay-Sachs disease, muscular dystrophy, sickle cell disease, and cystic fibrosis.
Academic text (2005)
Synonyms
11
9.3
A disease passed from parents that makes muscles get weak and waste away
1
9.0
A disease of the muscles that is not caused by nerve problems
1
5.8
A long-term medical condition in which parts of the body or how they work slowly get worse
A gradual loss of muscle and strength
Loss of muscle that gets worse over time, often from nerve damage
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is compositionally built from 'muscular' (relating to muscles) + 'dystrophy' (progressive wasting/weakness), so its meaning — a dystrophy affecting the muscles — follows directly from the constituents. This adjective+noun pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, making the term predictable for learners who know both words.
Etymology
Muscular dystrophy is a medical name made of muscular (about the body's muscles) and dystrophy (a word that means 'poor growth' or 'not getting enough nourishment'). So the name creates the image of muscles that slowly become 'weak' and 'waste away', which is why it refers to diseases that cause gradual muscle loss.