What does "phocomelia" mean?

A congenital disorder of the limbs, the affected person being born with abnormally short or missing bones and flipper-like hands or feet.

What is a synonym for "phocomelia"?

Common synonyms include: seal limbs, thalidomide baby.

Pronounced //ˌfəʊkəˈmiːlɪə//.

//ˌfəʊkəˈmiːlɪə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A congenital disorder of the limbs, the affected person being born with abnormally short or missing bones and flipper-like hands or feet. uncountable, usually
2
an abnormality of development in which the upper part of an arm or leg is missing so the hands or feet are attached to the body like stumps; rare condition that results from taking thalidomide during pregnancy wordnet

From Ancient Greek φώκη (phṓkē, “seal (marine animal)”) + μέλος (mélos, “limb”) + -ia.

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