Pruritus

//pɹuːˈɹaɪtəs// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Itching; especially, severe itching of undamaged skin; caused by allergy, infection, lymphoma, etc. uncountable, usually

    "2018, AbbVie, "FDA Grants AbbVie's Upadacitinib Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Atopic Dermatitis", Drug Discovery & Development Atopic dermatitis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, is characterized by skin erosion, oozing and crusting, redness, intense itching (pruritus) and dry skin."

  2. 2
    an intense itching sensation that can have various causes (as by allergies or infection or lymphoma or jaundice etc.) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
abscessacneagueanemiaanoxiaasphyxiation

Example

More examples

"2018, AbbVie, "FDA Grants AbbVie's Upadacitinib Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Atopic Dermatitis", Drug Discovery & Development Atopic dermatitis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, is characterized by skin erosion, oozing and crusting, redness, intense itching (pruritus) and dry skin."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin prūrītus (“an itch, an itching”), from prūriō (“to itch”).

Related phrases

pruritus ani

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