noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A blow to the chest which causes the diaphragm to go into spasm, making it difficult to draw a breath. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   Diaphragmatic spasm, as in hiccups. countable, uncountable

Etymology

From phreno- + spasm, from Ancient Greek φρήν (phrḗn, “diaphragm”) and σπασμός (spasmós, “spasm, convulsion”) respectively.

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