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n. pl. di·ag·no·ses (-sēz) 1. Medicine a. The act or process of identifying or determining the nature and cause of a disease or injury through evaluation of patient history, examination, and review of laboratory data. b. The opinion derived from such an evaluation. 2. a. A critical analysis of the nature of something. b. The conclusion reached by such analysis. 3. Biology A brief description of the distinguishing characteristics of an organism, as for taxonomic classification. [Greek diagnōsis, discernment, from diagignōskein, to distinguish : dia-, apart; see DIA- + gignōskein, gnō-, to come to know, discern; see gnō- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
v. di·ag·nosed, di·ag·nos·ing, di·ag·nos·es v.tr. 1. To distinguish or identify (a disease, for example) by diagnosis. 2. To identify (a person) as having a particular disease or condition by means of a diagnosis. 3. To analyze the nature or cause of: diagnose the reasons for an economic downturn. v.intr. To make a diagnosis. [Back-formation from DIAGNOSIS.] di′ag·nosa·ble adj. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
