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Glite Dictionary
sphenoiditis

sphenoiditis

9.9
A swelling or infection of the small space inside the skull behind the eyes
  • noun
  • /ˌsfɛnɔɪˈdaɪtɪs/
  • Specialized
: esfenoiditis
  • The doctor diagnosed him with acute sphenoiditis after he complained of severe headaches.

Examples

  • She experienced facial pain and fever, which were symptoms of sphenoiditis.

  • An MRI revealed that the patient was suffering from chronic sphenoiditis.

  • Collins reported a case of NSA resulting from acute sphenoiditis.

    Academic text (2009)

Synonyms

sinusitis
vssphenoiditis
  • Specialized
3 5.3

An illness that causes swelling and pain in the air spaces behind the nose

is inflammation of a deep skull cavity located behind the eyes

Surface Forms

sphenoiditis singular
sphenoiditides plural

Morphology

sphenoiditis = sphenoid (transparent) = sphenoid + itis

Formed from the medical base 'sphenoid' plus the standard medical suffix '-itis' meaning 'inflammation', so the meaning is directly derivable given knowledge of the base.

Etymology

Sphenoiditis comes from sphenoid, a word from Greek that means 'wedge', and the ending -itis which means 'inflammation' and shows up in words like tonsillitis. So sphenoiditis is the inflammation of the wedge-shaped sphenoid sinus, the small cavity deep in the skull behind the eyes.