What does "parkinsonism" mean?

A neurological syndrome characterized by tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and postural instability; a condition with the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, regardless of its cause.

Parkinsonism

Q: What is a synonym for "parkinsonism"?

Common synonyms include: parkinson's syndrome, paralysis agitans, paralysis agitans, parkinson's, parkinson's disease, parkinson's syndrome.

noun

noun ·5 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A neurological syndrome characterized by tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and postural instability; a condition with the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, regardless of its cause. countable, uncountable
"In 1982, a number of young California drug addicts developed acute and severe parkinsonism after intravenous injection of a synthetic heroin contaminated by MPTP."
2
Alternative letter-case form of parkinsonism. alt-of, countable, uncountable
"[…] a famous case, in the 1890s, in which the development of a one-sided Parkinsonism was correlated with the growth of a tuberculoma of one cerebral peduncle […]"
3
a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system characterized by tremor and impaired muscular coordination wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

parkinson's syndrome paralysis agitans paralysis agitans parkinson's parkinson's disease parkinson's syndrome

Example

More examples

"In 1982, a number of young California drug addicts developed acute and severe parkinsonism after intravenous injection of a synthetic heroin contaminated by MPTP."

Etymology

From Parkinson + -ism.

Related phrases

parkinson's disease

More for "parkinsonism"

Synonyms Sentences Pronunciation Translate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonyms See usage examples Check pronunciation Browse writing guides

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