Amygdalitis

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    tonsillitis obsolete, uncountable

    "In discussing the question of the treatment of acute articular rheumatism, with its associated diseases, such as endocarditis, chorea, and amygdalitis, it is well to review briefly the question of the ætiology of rheumatic fever."

Example

More examples

"In discussing the question of the treatment of acute articular rheumatism, with its associated diseases, such as endocarditis, chorea, and amygdalitis, it is well to review briefly the question of the ætiology of rheumatic fever."

Etymology

From international scientific vocabulary, probably from French amygdalite (“tonsillitis”); the English word does not correspond to its surface analysis, amygdal- + -itis, despite that cognation is involved in all these words (that is, they all trace back to the Latin word amygdala (“almond”)). In English the combining form of amygdalo- corresponds to the amygdala (a brain component), whereas in French the word for a palatine tonsil likewise comes from the Latin word amygdala; the shared semantic connection is that both of the body parts were named for their almond-shaped form.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.