cancerous

English

Etymology

From Middle English cancerous, from Latin cancerōsus, from cancer (“crab; tumor, cancer”) + -ōsus (adjective-forming suffix).[1] By surface analysis, cancer +‎ -ous.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkænsəɹəs/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Adjective

cancerous (comparative more cancerous, superlative most cancerous)

  1. (oncology) Relating to or affected with cancer.
    • 2002, Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man, Penguin Books (2003), page 368:
      On Sunday at five they operated to remove the cancerous kidney.
    • 2024 September 8, Kamala Thiagarajan, “Women who are blind play a critical role in identifying possible breast cancers”, in NPR‎[1]:
      A pilot study conducted in 2023 by the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Erlangen University Hospital in Germany involved 104 patients and concluded that clinical breast examinations by MTEs who were visually impaired were as accurate in identifying potentially cancerous tumors as doctors trained in this procedure.
  2. (figuratively) Growing or spreading rapidly to the point of harm.
  3. (slang) Extremely unpleasant; detestable.
    Synonyms: (slang) AIDS, (slang) cancer
    I love this show, but the fanbase is so toxic and cancerous.

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ “cancerous, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
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