Addison's syndrome
- noun
- /ˈædɪsənz ˈsɪndroʊm/
- Specialized
- Patients with Addison's syndrome often require lifelong hormone replacement therapy.
Examples
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Because Addison's syndrome affects hormone production, it can cause muscle weakness and weight loss.
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Many people with Addison's syndrome experience fatigue.
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After months of fatigue, the doctor finally diagnosed her with Addison's syndrome.
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She was diagnosed with Addison's syndrome last year.
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After months of fatigue, the doctor finally diagnosed her with Addison's syndrome.
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Because Addison's syndrome affects hormone production, it can cause muscle weakness and weight loss.
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Patients with Addison's syndrome often require lifelong hormone replacement therapy.
Synonyms
A rare condition where glands above the kidneys make too few hormones, causing weakness and low blood pressure
A disease where glands above the kidneys make too little hormone, causing tiredness, weakness, and dark skin
A condition where the adrenal glands make too little of a hormone, causing tiredness, weight loss, and darker skin
Surface Forms
Morphology
Addison's + syndrome
The headword combines an eponymous proper name ('Addison's') with 'syndrome', so a learner who knows both words would infer it is a medical condition or set of symptoms but not the specific cause or clinical features. Because the proper name gives no semantic information about adrenal cortex failure or characteristic symptoms, the expression is only partially transparent — the category (a syndrome) is clear but the specific meaning is not predictable without prior knowledge.
Etymology
Addison's syndrome is named after an English doctor, Thomas Addison, who in the 1800s first described patients with great tiredness, weight loss and darkened skin. So, his name became the term for the disease that affects the adrenal glands and causes those symptoms.