What does "encephalopathy" mean?

Any of various conditions affecting the brain.

How do you pronounce "encephalopathy"?

Pronounced //ɛnˌsɛfəˈlɒpəθi//.

Encephalopathy

Q: What is a synonym for "encephalopathy"?

Common synonyms include: brain disease, brain disorder, brain disorder, cerebropathia, encephalosis.

//ɛnˌsɛfəˈlɒpəθi// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any of various conditions affecting the brain. countable, uncountable
"Repeated trauma or shaking to the brain can be even worse, leading to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE."
2
any disorder or disease of the brain wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

brain disease brain disorder brain disorder cerebropathia encephalosis

Example

More examples

"Mad cow disease, also known as BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), is a fatal, neurological disorder that cattle get by eating infected meal from other animals, such as sheep. Humans can contract a version of the disease from diseased cows."

Etymology

From encephalo- + -pathy.

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