arthritis

Definition

Inflammation of a joint or joints causing pain and/or disability, swelling and stiffness, and due to various causes such as infection, trauma, degenerative changes or metabolic disorders: any of several disease entities.

Etymology

From Latin arthrītis, from Ancient Greek ἀρθρῖτις (arthrîtis, “joint-disease, gout”), from ἄρθρον (árthron, “a joint”). By surface analysis, arthr- + -itis.

Example Sentences

• "The suppurating osteo-myelitis and arthritis did not assume a form sufficiently putrid to cause purulent infection; the patient also escaped hecticity;"
• "She identified the dry grasp and the finger joints (both the Simpsons were dry-handed, and in the early stages of arthritis, so Dr Simpson had diagnosed)."
• "Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), often referred to by doctors today as juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), is a type of arthritis that causes joint inflammation and stiffness for more than six weeks in a child aged 16 or younger. It affects approximately 50,000 children in the United States. Inflammation causes redness, swelling, warmth, and soreness in the joints, although many children with JRA do not complain of joint pain."

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