Paraplegia

noun

noun ·5 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A condition where the lower half of a patient's body is paralyzed and cannot move. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    paralysis of the lower half of the body (most often as a result of trauma) wordnet

Etymology

From New Latin paraplegia, from Ancient Greek παραπληγίη (paraplēgíē), Ionic Greek for παραπληξία (paraplēxía, “paralysis on one side”), from παραπλήσσεσθαι (paraplḗssesthai, “to be stricken on one side”), active παραπλήσσειν (paraplḗssein, “to strike on one side”), from παρά (pará, “beside”) + πλήσσειν (plḗssein, “to strike”).

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