Idiopathy
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A disease or condition arising spontaneously or having no known cause.
"The sterilization that was first conceived as a recourse of limited medical reach came to be considered an efficient eugenical procedure that could prevent descendents^([sic]) with hereditary and transmissible disorders, such as mental deficiency, epilepsy, idiopathies, etc."
- 2 any disease arising from internal dysfunctions of unknown cause wordnet
Example
More examples"The sterilization that was first conceived as a recourse of limited medical reach came to be considered an efficient eugenical procedure that could prevent descendents^([sic]) with hereditary and transmissible disorders, such as mental deficiency, epilepsy, idiopathies, etc."
Etymology
From Latin idiopathia, from Ancient Greek ἰδιοπάθεια (idiopátheia). By surface analysis, idio- + -pathy. First appears c. 1634, in the publications of Philiatreus (fl. 1630).
More for "idiopathy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.