Ecchymosis
//ˌɛk.ɪˈmoʊ.sɪs// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A skin discoloration caused by bleeding underneath the skin, especially one that is remote from a site of trauma or caused by a non-traumatic process (such as neoplasia). countable, uncountable
"A diseased condition of the skin has often been mistaken for stigmatic marks. Such, for instance, is ecchymosis, a discoloration of the skin due to the extravasation of subcutaneous blood."
- 2 the escape of blood from ruptured blood vessels into the surrounding tissue to form a purple or black-and-blue spot on the skin wordnet
- 3 the purple or black-and-blue area resulting from a bruise wordnet
Example
More examples"A diseased condition of the skin has often been mistaken for stigmatic marks. Such, for instance, is ecchymosis, a discoloration of the skin due to the extravasation of subcutaneous blood."
Etymology
From New Latin ecchymōsis, from Ancient Greek ἐκχύμωσις (ekkhúmōsis), from ἐκχέω (ekkhéō, “I pour out”), from ἐκ- (ek-, “out”) + χέω (khéō, “I pour”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.