impacted tooth
1
5.4
- noun
- /ɪmˈpæktɪd tuθ/
- Specialized
:
diente impactado
- Many people experience pain from an impacted tooth when it tries to push through the gums.
Examples
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But I had a terrible impacted tooth, and so John...
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I don't think we ought to complain about a few impacted teeth.
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The dentist said that I need to have my impacted tooth removed to avoid further complications.
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After years of discomfort, she finally decided to have her impacted tooth surgically extracted.
Synonyms
A tooth stuck under the gums and blocked by another tooth or bone
How Erupted
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjectival composition: 'impacted' (stuck/obstructed) + 'tooth', so the meaning 'a tooth prevented from erupting normally' is directly derivable from the parts. This is a literal medical description following common adjective+noun composition and has parallels in other languages, making it readily understandable to a learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
Impacted tooth comes from the image of a tooth being pushed and stuck under the gum or against another tooth or bone so it cannot come out. So it means 'a tooth that is blocked and cannot come out normally'.