Symptomatic

How to spell symptomatic

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce symptomatic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does symptomatic mean?

1. adjectiveServing as a sign of a particular condition, or relating to the symptoms of a disease.

Symptomatic in a sentence

• The persistent delays were symptomatic of a deeper management problem.

• The doctor noted that the rash was symptomatic of an allergic reaction.

Where does symptomatic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek symptoma, which literally meant a chance happening or something that befalls a person, formed from sym, meaning 'together' or 'with', and a root tied to the verb piptein, meaning 'to fall'. The underlying image is of events 'falling together', so a symptoma was an occurrence that coincided with an illness rather than the illness itself. Greek physicians used the related adjective symptomatikos for things pertaining to such occurrences, and Latin medicine carried it onward as symptomaticus. English adopted 'symptomatic' in the seventeenth century, first in strictly medical writing, before it broadened to describe anything that serves as a sign or indication of an underlying condition. The spelling keeps the Greek -p- buried after the -m-, which is exactly the silent stumbling point: 'symptomatic' has a 'p' that the modern voice barely sounds, mirroring its quiet cousin in 'symptom'.

How the word is built

• sym- (together, with)
• ptom (from piptein: to fall)
• -atic (adjective suffix)