Tumescence
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A swelling due to the presence of fluid. countable, uncountable
"It is still more remarkable that the reeves also, even in the presence of the males, will court each other and have intercourse. We may associate this with the high erotic development of birds, the difficulty with which tumescence seems to occur in them, and their long courtships."
- 2 tumidity resulting from the presence of blood or other fluid in the tissues wordnet
- 3 A swollen bodily organ; used especially of erectile tissue. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"It is still more remarkable that the reeves also, even in the presence of the males, will court each other and have intercourse. We may associate this with the high erotic development of birds, the difficulty with which tumescence seems to occur in them, and their long courtships."
Etymology
First attested 1725, from French tumescence, from Latin tumescēns (“swelling”), present participle of tumēscō (“I begin to swell”), from tumeō (“I swell”) + -ēscō (“I become”) (English -esce, in this form -escence), stem from Proto-Indo-European *tum-éh₁- (“to be swelling”), stative stem of *tum- (“to swell”).
Related phrases
More for "tumescence"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.