Inflammation

How to spell inflammation

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce inflammation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inflammation mean?

1. nounA localised reaction of the body marked by redness, heat, swelling, and pain, often in response to injury or infection.

Inflammation in a sentence

• The doctor prescribed tablets to reduce the inflammation in his knee.

• Chronic inflammation of the gut can be triggered by certain foods.

Where does inflammation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb inflammare, which literally meant 'to set on fire' or 'to kindle', formed from the prefix in- ('into' or 'upon') and flamma ('a flame'). The related noun inflammatio described a flaring up or burning, and Roman writers used it both for literal fires and for the metaphorical heat of passion. The medical sense developed naturally, since a swollen, reddened, painful area of the body genuinely feels hot, as though it were burning. English took the word in through Old French inflammation in the late 1300s, and physicians later fixed the four classic signs of the condition as redness, heat, swelling, and pain. The doubled m sits there because the root flamma already carried two of them, and the same flamma is exactly why 'flame', 'flammable', and 'inflammable' all share the spelling.

How the word is built

• in- (into, on)
• flamm (from flamma: flame)
• -ation (noun of action/state)