Diagnosis

How to spell diagnosis

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce diagnosis

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does diagnosis mean?

1. nounThe identification of an illness or problem by examining its symptoms or signs.

Diagnosis in a sentence

• The doctor confirmed the diagnosis after reviewing the scan results.

• An early diagnosis gave her a much better chance of recovery.

Where does diagnosis come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes directly from the Greek diagnosis, which meant 'a distinguishing' or 'a discerning'. It was built from dia, meaning 'apart' or 'through', and gnosis, meaning 'knowledge' or 'a knowing', so the literal sense was the act of telling things apart by careful knowledge. The Greek root gignoskein, 'to come to know', is the same ancient source that gives English words like 'know', 'cognition', and 'prognosis'. Latin borrowed the term, and it entered medical English in the seventeenth century to describe the work of identifying a disease by examining its signs. The spelling keeps the Greek 'gn' cluster, which is why the silent 'g' often trips writers, and the unstressed second syllable can sound like a vague schwa rather than the clear 'a' that is actually written.

How the word is built

• dia- (through, apart)
• gnosis (knowing, knowledge) from the Greek verb gignoskein 'to know'