severe combined immunodeficiency
- noun
- /sɪˈvɪr kəmˈbaɪnd ˌɪmjunəˈdɪfɪʃən/
- Specialized
:
inmunodeficiencia combinada severa
- Children with severe combined immunodeficiency often cannot fight off infections that healthy children can.
Examples
-
Doctors diagnosed her with severe combined immunodeficiency after she had multiple infections in a short period.
-
Due to his severe combined immunodeficiency, he must avoid crowded places to reduce his risk of illness.
-
It's called severe combined immunodeficiency.
-
I have severe combined immunodeficiency.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A rare condition passed from parents that makes the body's defence very weak so babies get serious infections
A rare condition passed from parents that makes babies unable to fight infections and often deadly without treatment
How Severe
- Specialized
- Specialized
4
6.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
severe + combined + immunodeficiency
The meaning is directly compositional: 'severe' (very serious) + 'combined' (affecting multiple components) + 'immunodeficiency' (weakened immune system) yields a very serious form of immune weakness affecting more than one arm of immunity. While clinical specifics (inheritance, T‑cell absence) are specialized, the general sense is predictable from the constituents and would be understood by a learner who knows those words.
Etymology
Severe combined immunodeficiency is made of severe, meaning very bad, combined, meaning more than one part, and immunodeficiency, meaning 'a weak immune system'. It describes a rare inherited condition where the body's immune 'army' is missing many soldiers, so the person is very vulnerable to infections.