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deformity

UK/dɪˈfɔːmɪti/US/dɪˈfɔɹməti/
nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,139 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: deformities

A deformity is a part of the body twisted out of its proper shape. A congenital deformity, correct the deformity, a spinal deformity.

It is a clinical word and a harsh one outside the clinic, where difference is now the preferred term. In medicine it is precise: a deformity is a shape that has gone wrong, as against a malformation, which never formed correctly.

Definitions of deformity

  1. 1noundeformityA part of the body twisted out of its proper shape.B2+

    “The baby was born with a foot deformity that was corrected by surgery.”

deformity is a condition.

Where it comes from

Latin deformitas comes from deformis, misshapen, from de-, away from, plus forma, shape.

  1. Latin

    dēfōrmitās — deformity, ugliness

  2. Middle French

    deformite

  3. Middle English

    deformite

  4. English, today

    deformity

Built from

  • dēfōrmis · Latin — deformed, ugly
  • fōrma · Latin — shape, form

Middle English deformite, from Middle French deformite, from Latin dēfōrmitās (“deformity, ugliness”), from dēfōrmis (“deformed, ugly”) + -itās, from dē + fōrma (“shape, form”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

deformity in the wild

  • A nail disease or onychosis is a disease or deformity of the nail.

    Nail disease

  • In the sense of a deformity, it is the pathological curving of the spine, where parts of the spinal column lose some or all of their lordotic profile.

    Kyphosis

  • Whereas in a valgus deformity of the knee, the distal part of the leg is deviated outward in relation to the femur, resulting in a knock-kneed posture.

    Varus deformity

  • A valgus deformity is a condition in which the bone segment distal to a joint is angled outward, that is, angled laterally, away from the body's midline.

    Valgus deformity

  • The deformity is due to a failure in early fetal development, where the shoulder fails to descend properly from the neck to its final position.

    Sprengel's deformity

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the fōrma family

forminform

deformity — used about once every 8,182 pages · #11,139 · point at the bar for the others