radiation syndrome
- noun
- /ˌreɪdiˈeɪʃən ˈsɪnˌdroʊm/
- Specialized
- The patient exhibited classic signs of radiation syndrome, such as nausea, vomiting, and hair loss.
- acute radiation syndrome
Examples
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Acute radiation syndrome.
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So when talking about radiation, the chief threat is acute radiation syndrome, better known as radiation sickness.
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He was hospitalized after being diagnosed with radiation syndrome following his exposure to a nuclear accident.
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Acute radiation syndrome can lead to severe health issues including organ failure if not treated promptly.
Synonyms
An illness after a large amount of harmful radiation that causes nausea, vomiting, and hair loss
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: a learner who knows 'radiation' (energy emitted as rays/waves/particles) and 'syndrome' (a set of co-occurring symptoms) can infer this refers to a set of symptoms caused by radiation exposure. The term is a regular medical compound with clear cross-linguistic parallels, so its meaning is immediately derivable from its parts even if the learner lacks detailed clinical knowledge.
Etymology
Radiation syndrome comes from the parts radiation (very strong, invisible rays) and syndrome (a group of 'symptoms'). Imagine those invisible rays hitting the body and causing signs like vomiting and hair loss, so radiation syndrome means 'an illness caused by high doses of radiation'.