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tumor

UK/tjuː.mə/US/tuː.məɹ/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,663 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: tumors

A tumor is a lump of cells growing where it should not. A benign tumor, remove the tumor, brain tumor.

Benign means it does not spread and malignant means it does, and that distinction matters more than size. Not every tumor is cancer and not every cancer forms one — leukaemia does not. Note the British spelling tumour; and that the Latin means a swelling, from tumere, to swell.

Original uploader was Emmanuelm at en.wikipedia (Original text : Emmanuelm (talk)) · CC BY 3.0

Definitions of tumor

  1. 1nountumorA lump of cells growing where it should not.B2

    “Scans showed a small tumor, which surgeons removed the following week.”

tumor is a growth.

Also accepted in games: tumour

Where it comes from

Latin tumor means a swelling, from tumere, to swell. Thumb and thigh come from a related root meaning to swell.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *tewh₂- — to swell

  2. Proto-Italic

    *tumēō

  3. Latin

    tumor — swelling

  4. Old French

    tumour

  5. Middle English

    tumour

  6. English, today

    tumor

Built from

  • tumeō · Latin — bulge, swell

From Middle English tumour, from Old French tumour, from Latin tumor (“swelling”), from tumeō (“bulge, swell”), from Proto-Italic tumēō, from Proto-Indo-European tewh₂- (“to swell”). Related to English thumb.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Body & Health

Practise this word

tumor in the wild

  • Without treatment, tumors spread throughout the lung, damaging lung function.

    Lung cancer

  • Other symptoms depend on the location and size of the tumor.

    Lung cancer

  • A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the brain grow out of control, creating a mass.

    Brain tumor

  • All types of brain tumors may produce symptoms that vary depending on the size of the tumor and the part of the brain that is involved.

    Brain tumor

  • A bone tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in bone.

    Bone tumor

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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.