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amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

1 6.8
A disease that slowly destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control muscles
  • noun
  • /ˌeɪmiəˈtroʊfɪk ˈlætərəl skləˈroʊsɪs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : esclerosis lateral amiotrófica
  • Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is diffuse, and the patient would not have survived to this degree of atrophy.
  • amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

Examples

  • He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease that saps muscle mobility but not feeling.

    Blog text (10)
  • Demographic and dysarthria details of participants with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

    Academic text (2012)
  • The guy was 30 years old, never sick a day in his life, and then suddenly, out of left field, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

  • In the first row slumps a young man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Then he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

    Blog text (6)
  • As you will remember, the anti-HCRs said that the NHS would have left Stephen Hawking to die of his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

    Blog text (17)
  • In 1963, his condition was diagnosed as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

    Academic text (1991)
  • The New Jersey case involved a ventilator-dependent woman dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease).

    Academic text (2002)
  • The doctor explained that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly referred to as ALS, affects muscle control.

  • After struggling with symptoms for years, she was finally diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Synonyms

ALS
vsamyotrophic lateral sclerosis
  • Specialized
37 5.6

A serious disease that slowly damages the nerves in the brain and spine and makes the muscles weak and smaller

has the same meaning but uses the full technical name
Lou Gehrig's disease
vsamyotrophic lateral sclerosis
  • Specialized
8 4.1

A serious disease that slowly stops the muscles you can control from working

has the same meaning but is the less technical more informal name

Antonyms

264 3.0

Getting better after illness or injury

regeneration
  • Specialized
15 4.7

Growing new body parts or tissue after damage

Surface Forms

Morphology

amyotrophic + lateral + sclerosis

The term is partly compositional: 'amyotrophic' (muscle wasting) + 'lateral' (side) + 'sclerosis' (hardening) together point to a medical condition involving hardening of lateral regions that causes muscle wasting. However, the full clinical sense — that this denotes a specific progressive motor-neuron disease with characteristic degeneration and clinical course — is specialized and not fully predictable for an average B1 learner, so understanding would require domain knowledge beyond the literal constituents.

Etymology

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis comes from Greek parts: a- 'no', myo- 'muscle', -trophic 'feed', plus lateral 'side' and sclerosis 'hardening'. So the name literally paints a picture of 'muscles not being fed' and 'hardening on the sides' of the spine, which helps remember that the disease makes muscles weak because nerve cells stop working.