degenerative
24
7.8
- adjective
- /dɪˈdʒɛnərətɪv/
- Specialized
:
degenerativo
- Many elderly people suffer from a degenerative muscle condition that reduces their mobility.
- degenerative disease
- degenerative changes
- degenerative condition
The second thing is degenerative disc disease.
- The second thing is degenerative disc disease.
- Like explain a little bit about how this is leading to all of these degenerative chronic illnesses that we're seeing.
- What we don't have are treatments that really target the optic nerve degenerative process and we can come back and talk about that.
- What sense as this any relevance for the progression of their degenerative diseases?
- So stem cells are needed for cell renewal as well as body renewal, tissue healing, wound healing, degenerative changes to actually renew.
- Yeah, we all have friends perhaps, or, or ourselves whose parents are through whatever degenerative form of, of illness, losing memories.
Examples
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Victor, this disease is progressive, degenerative.
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The second thing is degenerative disc disease.
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You start to break down, you start to get old, and we start to see evidence of that degenerative change.
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I mean, I could have a degenerative eye disease or something.
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Everyone in my family has some sort of degenerative illness.
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It's used to treat various degenerative diseases.
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It's a degenerative congenital blood disease.
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Diagnosed with a rare degenerative disease, he resigned from his corporation... and searched for a cure.
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Mad cow disease is a chronic, degenerative disorder that affects the central nervous system of cattle.
Academic text (2005) -
Osteoporosis is a degenerative bone disease characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue.
Academic text (2005)
Antonyms
Compounds
- Specialized
1
5.8
A long-term medical condition in which parts of the body or how they work slowly get worse
- Specialized
1
4.3
A long-lasting condition where joint cartilage slowly breaks down causing pain and stiffness
- Specialized
A long-term joint disease that wears away the soft tissue between bones, causing pain and stiffness
How Degenerative
- Specialized
24
7.8
52
4.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
degenerative = degenerate (transparent) = degenerate + ive
Formed by adding the productive adjective suffix '-ive' to the verb 'degenerate' (or to the related noun 'degeneration'), so the meaning 'characterized by degeneration' is directly derived.
Etymology
Degenerative comes from de- meaning 'down' and generate meaning 'to make' or 'to produce', the same root you see in generate and generation. So a degenerative disease slowly 'goes down'—it gets worse over time and loses its ability to work.