What does "hypothyroidism" mean?

The disease state caused by insufficient production of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland.

What is a synonym for "hypothyroidism"?

Common synonyms include: cretinism, gland, low thyroid, underactive thyroid.

Pronounced //ˌhaɪpəˈθaɪɹɔɪˌdɪzəm//.

//ˌhaɪpəˈθaɪɹɔɪˌdɪzəm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The disease state caused by insufficient production of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland. countable, uncountable
2
an underactive thyroid gland; a glandular disorder resulting from insufficient production of thyroid hormones wordnet

Coined c. between 1900 and 1905 from hypo- (“under”) + thyroid + -ism.

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