Atrophy

//ˈæt.ɹə.fi// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A reduction in the functionality of an organ caused by disease, injury or lack of use. countable, uncountable

    "Now that chatbots are going the way of Google—moving from the miraculous to the taken-for-granted—the anxiety has shifted, too, from apocalypse to atrophy. Teachers, especially, say they’re beginning to see the rot. The term for it is unlovely but not inapt: de-skilling."

  2. 2
    any weakening or degeneration (especially through lack of use) wordnet
  3. 3
    a decrease in size of an organ caused by disease or disuse wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To wither or waste away. intransitive

    "Boy. I love summer vacation. I can feel my brain beginning to atrophy already."

  2. 2
    undergo atrophy wordnet
  3. 3
    To cause to waste away or become abortive; to starve or weaken. transitive

    "Cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any sense of compassion"

Synonyms

All synonyms
abnormalityabscessacute diseaseaffectionafflictionague

Example

More examples

"Don't let your muscles atrophy."

Etymology

Borrowed from French atrophie, from Latin atrophia, from Ancient Greek ἀτροφία (atrophía, “a wasting away”), from ἄτροφος (átrophos, “ill-fed, un-nourished”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + τροφή (trophḗ, “nourishment”), from τρέφω (tréphō, “I fatten”). Equivalent to a- + -trophy.

Related phrases

dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophygeographic atrophyspinal muscular atrophyyellow atrophy

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