Polio

//ˈpəʊljəʊ// name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Abbreviation of poliomyelitis. abbreviation, alt-of, uncountable
  2. 2
    an acute viral disease marked by inflammation of nerve cells of the brain stem and spinal cord wordnet
  3. 3
    A person who has poliomyelitis. countable, informal

    "They don't need social service workers running back and forth every month or two to see if the polios are playing stickball in the street because they never will."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from Spanish.

Synonyms

All synonyms
poliomyelitisacute anterior poliomyelitisacute articular rheumatismafrican lethargyaguealkali disease

Example

More examples

"She was vaccinated against polio."

Etymology

Etymology 1

First element of polio(myelitis).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Spanish Polio. This surname is mostly found in El Salvador.

Related phrases

crippling diseaseeradicated diseaseold diseaseroosevelt disease

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