Microcephaly

//ˌmaɪkɹoʊˈsɛfəli// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A neurological disorder in which the person affected has an abnormally small head due to a failure of brain growth. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    an abnormally small head and underdeveloped brain wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
microcephaliamicrocephaliamicrocephalismmicrocephalismmicrocephalusnanocephaly

Example

More examples

"The World Health Organization reports evidence is accumulating of a causal link between the Zika virus and two neurological disorders — microcephaly, which causes brain abnormalities in newborn babies — and Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which can result in paralysis."

Etymology

From micro- + -cephaly.

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