Sepsis
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A serious medical condition in which the whole body is inflamed, causing injury to its own tissues and organs as a response to infection. countable, uncountable
"Imagine the sepsis of helpless loathing [Jimmy Connors] must have inspired in his opponents during his "great runs" at the US Open."
- 2 the presence of pus-forming bacteria or their toxins in the blood or tissues wordnet
Example
More examples"The term sepsis as now used in clinical surgery no longer retains its original meaning as synonymous with “putrefaction,” but is employed to denote all conditions in which bacterial infection has taken place, and more particularly those in which pyogenic bacteria are present."
Etymology
coined by Hippocrates From Ancient Greek σῆψις (sêpsis, “putrefaction”), from σήπειν (sḗpein, “to make rotten”), from σήψ (sḗps, “a kind of lizard; also a kind of serpent whose bite was alleged to cause putrefaction”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.