noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any of a class of types of cancer affecting the blood cells, especially the white blood cells (usually with massive leukocytosis), and the blood cell–forming (hematopoietic) tissues. countable, uncountable

   "The subjects suffered from lymphoblastic and myeloid leukemias."

2. 2
   malignant neoplasm of blood-forming tissues; characterized by abnormal proliferation of leukocytes; one of the four major types of cancer wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

acute leukemiaanemiaangiohemophiliaaplastic anemiabloodcancer of blood

Example

More examples

"My uncle has been diagnosed with leukemia."

Etymology

From German Leukämie, from Ancient Greek λευκός (leukós, “white”) + αἷμα (haîma, “blood”). By surface analysis, leuk- + -emia.

Related phrases

acute lymphoblastic leukemiabovine leukemiachronic myeloid leukemialeukemia cutislymphoblastic leukemia

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