nausea

UK/ˈnɔːzɪə/US/ˈnɔzi.ə/

nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,753 of 15,258neutral

Nausea is the feeling that you are about to be sick. Wave of nausea, feel nausea, nausea and dizziness.

It is the feeling rather than the act, and it can come from the stomach, the inner ear, a smell or pure anxiety, because the same brain area handles all of them. The Greek behind it means seasickness, from the word for a ship.

Definitions of nausea

1nounnauseaThe feeling that you are about to be sick.B2
“This medicine can cause nausea, so take it with food.”

nausea is a feeling.

Where it comes from

Greek nausia meant seasickness, from naus, a ship. Nautical and navy come from the same word.

Proto-Indo-European
*(s)neh₂-
Ancient Greek
ναυσία — sea-sickness
Latin
nausea
Middle English
nausea
English, today
nausea

Built from

ναῦς · Ancient Greek — ship

From Middle English nausea, a borrowing from Latin nausea, from Ancient Greek ναυσία (“sea-sickness”), from ναῦς (“ship”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)neh₂-. Displaced native wlǣtta.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

nausea in the wild

The term is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as "to a disgusting or ridiculous degree; to the point of nausea".
Ad nauseam
Morning sickness, also called nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP), is a symptom of pregnancy.
Morning sickness
Despite the name, nausea or vomiting can occur at any time during the day.
Morning sickness
The feeling that one is about to vomit is called nausea; it often precedes, but does not always lead to vomiting.
Vomiting
Over 30 definitions of nausea were proposed in a 2011 book on the topic.
Nausea

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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 nausea family

noise

nausea — used about once every 1,559 pages · #5,753 · point at the bar for the others

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