cancer

Borrowed from Latin cancer (“crab”), a calque of Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab; ulcer; cancer”) (possibly cognate), applied to cancerous tumors because the enlarged veins resembled the legs of a crab. Doublet of canker and chancre.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkænsə/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkæːnsə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkænsɚ/

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• Rhymes: -ænsə(ɹ)

cancer (countable and uncountable, plural cancers)

2. (medicine, oncology, pathology) A disease in which the cells of a tissue undergo uncontrolled (and often rapid) proliferation.

   Synonym: malignancy

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎^[1]:

     If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the […] hazards of gasoline cars: air and water pollution, noise and noxiousness, constant coughing and the undeniable rise in cancers caused by smoke exhaust particulates.

   • 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:

     Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.

   • 2015 February 26, Francis S. Collins, Harold Varmus, “A New Initiative on Precision Medicine”, in The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 372, number 9, →DOI, pages 793–794:

     Cancers are common diseases; in the aggregate, they are among the leading causes of death nationally and worldwide, and their incidence is increasing as the population ages.

3. (figuratively) Something damaging that spreads throughout something else.
   • 1991, Charlie Peacock, “In the Light”‎^[2]:

     The disease of the self runs through my blood; It's a cancer fatal to my soul.

   • 1999, Bruce Clifford Ross-Larson, Effective Writing‎^[3], page 134:

     Sierra Leone's post-dictator problems are almost absurd in their breadth. It once exported rice; now it can't feed itself. The life span of the average citizen is 39, the shortest in Africa. Unemployment stands at 87 percent and tuberculosis is spreading out of control. Corruption, brazen and ubiquitous, is a cancer on the economy.

   • 2025 December 20, Richard Fausset, Ken Bensinger, quoting Steve Bannon, “Turning Point’s Annual Gathering Turns Into a Gripefest”, in The New York Times‎^[4], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     The following day, Mr. [Stephen K.] Bannon called Mr. [Ben] Shapiro a “cancer” on the movement, and Ms. [Megyn] Kelly said she resented Mr. Shapiro’s attacks.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

• (something which spreads): growth, lichen

• (disease): growth
• (disease): tumor
• (disease): neoplasia
• (disease): neoplasm

• carcinoma
  • adenocarcinoma
• leukaemia / leukemia
• lymphoma
• sarcoma
  • lymphosarcoma
• See also: Derived terms denoting types

• benign tumor
• benign neoplasm
• benign neoplasia

• cancerwort (Kickxia spp.)
• cancer bush (Lessertia frutescens)
• cancer stick
• cancer root

• Bislama: kansa
• → Hindi: कैंसर (ka͠isar)
• Krio: kansa
• → Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi script: ਕੈਂਸਰ (kainsar)

  Shahmukhi script: کینسر (kainsar)

• → Swahili: kansa
• Tok Pisin: kensa
• → Tumbuka: kansa
• → Urdu: کینسر (kainsar)
• → Welsh: canser

cancer (comparative more cancer, superlative most cancer)

1. (slang) Extremely unpleasant and annoying.

   Synonyms: (slang) cancerous, (slang) AIDS

   I used to love this game, but the new meta is straight up cancer.

• benignancy (benignity)
• leukemia
• lymphoma
• malignancy
• melanoma

• “cancer”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “cancer”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• crance

Ultimately from Latin cancer (“crab”).

• Hyphenation: can‧cer

cancer inan or anim

1. (astrology) Cancer

   Synonym: karramarro

2. Cancer (someone with a Cancer star sign)

• “cancer”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]

From English cancer.

cancer

1. (Cantonese) cancer (disease)

   生cancer [Cantonese]  ―  saang¹ ken¹ saa² [Jyutping]  ―  to have cancer

• can, 癌 (ái), 癌症 (áizhèng)

Borrowed from Latin cancer.

cancer c (singular definite canceren, not used in plural form)

1. cancer (disease)
2. (slang) Something perceived as bad.

Borrowed from Latin cancer. Doublet of chancre, which was inherited, and cancre.

• IPA^(key): /kɑ̃.sɛʁ/

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cancer m (plural cancers)

1. cancer

• cancer vert

• cancre
• chancre

• → Romanian: cancer
• → Turkish: kanser

• “cancer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From Proto-Italic *kankros, dissimilation of Proto-Italic *karkros (“enclosure”) (because the pincers of a crab form a circle), from Proto-Indo-European *kr-kr- (“circular”), reduplication of Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”) in the sense of "enclosure", and as such a doublet of carcer. Cognate with curvus. The medical sense, found in Celsus, seems likely to be a semantic loan from Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab; ulcer; cancer”), which is possibly cognate.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkaŋ.kɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkan̠ʲ.t͡ʃer]

cancer m (genitive cancrī); second declension

1. a crab
   1. (Astronomy) the constellation Cancer
2. a tumor, cancer

   Synonym: carcinōma

3. a lattice, grid, or barrier

Second-declension noun (nominative singular in -er).

• In classical Latin, usually declined as a masculine second-declension noun with the stem cancro-.
• Third-declension forms built on a stem cancer- also existed, but were much less frequent. Attested forms include:
  • genitive singular canceris (Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 5.617)
  • accusative plural cancerēs (Cato the Elder, De Agri Cultura 157.3.4)
• The grammarians Charisius and Priscian describe a use as a neuter noun, with Priscian specifying that this applies when the word is used for the illness; the neuter occurs sporadically in later Christian authors.^[1]

• cancellus

• “cancer”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cancer”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “cancer”, in The Perseus Project (1999), Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[5]
• “cancer” in volume 3, column 228, line 24 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “cancer”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 2: C Q K, page 174

• cancor

From Latin cancer.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑn.ker/, [ˈkɑŋ.ker]

cancer m

1. cancer
2. crab

Strong a-stem:

• cancerādl
• cancerhæbern
• cancerwund

• Middle English: canker, cancre, cancer, cankre, cankyr, kankir, kanker (partially from Old French cancre)
  • English: canker
  • → Welsh: cancr

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “cancer”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Borrowed from French cancer, from Latin cancer.

cancer n (plural cancere)

1. cancer

• canceros

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cancer c

1. (medicine, oncology, pathology) cancer

• kräfta (obsolete)

• onkologi

• cancer in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• cancer in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• cancer in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• Svensk MeSH