tetanus

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: tet=a=nus

CIDE DICTIONARY

tetanus, n. [L., fr. Gr. , fr. stretched, to stretch.].

•  A painful and usually fatal disease, resulting generally from a wound, and having as its principal symptom persistent spasm of the voluntary muscles. When the muscles of the lower jaw are affected, it is called locked-jaw, or lickjaw, and it takes various names from the various incurvations of the body resulting from the spasm.  [1913 Webster]
•  That condition of a muscle in which it is in a state of continued vibratory contraction, as when stimulated by a series of induction shocks.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

tetanus, n.
1 a bacterial disease affecting the nervous system and marked by tonic spasm of the voluntary muscles.
2 Physiol. the prolonged contraction of a muscle caused by rapidly repeated stimuli.

Derivative

tetanize v.tr. (also -ise). tetanoid adj.

Etymology

ME f. L f. Gk tetanos muscular spasm f. teino stretch

THESAURUS

tetanus

African lethargy, Asiatic cholera, Chagres fever, German measles, Haverhill fever, Jacksonian epilepsy, Rolandic epilepsy, abdominal epilepsy, access, acquired epilepsy, activated epilepsy, acute articular rheumatism, affect epilepsy, ague, akinetic epilepsy, alkali disease, amebiasis, amebic dysentery, anthrax, apoplexy, arrest, attack, autonomic epilepsy, bacillary dysentery, bastard measles, black death, black fever, blackwater fever, blockage, breakbone fever, brucellosis, bubonic plague, cachectic fever, cardiac epilepsy, cerebral rheumatism, chicken pox, cholera, clonic spasm, clonus, convulsion, cortical epilepsy, cowpox, cramp, cursive epilepsy, dandy fever, deer fly fever, dengue, dengue fever, diphtheria, diurnal epilepsy, dumdum fever, dysentery, eclampsia, elephantiasis, encephalitis lethargica, enteric fever, epilepsia, epilepsia gravior, epilepsia major, epilepsia minor, epilepsia mitior, epilepsia nutans, epilepsia tarda, epilepsy, erysipelas, falling sickness, famine fever, fit, five-day fever, flu, focal epilepsy, frambesia, frenzy, glandular fever, grand mal, grippe, hansenosis, haute mal, hepatitis, herpes, herpes simplex, herpes zoster, histoplasmosis, hookworm, hydrophobia, hysterical epilepsy, ictus, infantile paralysis, infectious mononucleosis, inflammatory rheumatism, influenza, jail fever, jungle rot, kala azar, kissing disease, larval epilepsy, laryngeal epilepsy, laryngospasm, latent epilepsy, lepra, leprosy, leptospirosis, loa loa, loaiasis, lockjaw, madness, malaria, malarial fever, marsh fever, matutinal epilepsy, measles, meningitis, menstrual epilepsy, milzbrand, mumps, musicogenic epilepsy, myoclonous epilepsy, nocturnal epilepsy, occlusion, ornithosis, osteomyelitis, paratyphoid fever, parotitis, paroxysm, parrot fever, pertussis, petit mal, physiologic epilepsy, pneumonia, polio, poliomyelitis, polyarthritis rheumatism, ponos, psittacosis, psychic epilepsy, psychomotor epilepsy, rabbit fever, rabies, rat-bite fever, reflex epilepsy, relapsing fever, rheumatic fever, rickettsialpox, ringworm, rotatoria, rubella, rubeola, scarlatina, scarlet fever, schistosomiasis, seizure, sensory epilepsy, septic sore throat, serial epilepsy, shingles, sleeping sickness, sleepy sickness, smallpox, snail fever, spasm, splenic fever, spotted fever, stoppage, strep throat, stroke, swamp fever, tardy epilepsy, tetany, throes, thromboembolism, thrombosis, thrush, tinea, tonic epilepsy, tonic spasm, torsion spasm, traumatic epilepsy, trench fever, trench mouth, trismus, tuberculosis, tularemia, typhoid, typhoid fever, typhus, typhus fever, ucinate epilepsy, undulant fever, vaccinia, varicella, variola, venereal disease, viral dysentery, visitation, whooping cough, yaws, yellow fever, yellow jack, zona, zoster

ROGET THESAURUS

tetanus

Disease

N disease, illness, sickness, ailing, all the ills that flesh is heir to, morbidity, morbosity, infirmity, ailment, indisposition, complaint, disorder, malady, distemper, distemperature, visitation, attack, seizure, stroke, fit, delicacy, loss of health, invalidation, cachexy, cachexia, atrophy, marasmus, indigestion, dyspepsia, decay, decline, consumption, palsy, paralysis, prostration, taint, pollution, infection, sepsis, septicity, infestation, epidemic, pandemic, endemic, epizootic, murrain, plague, pestilence, pox, sore, ulcer, abscess, fester, boil, pimple, wen, carbuncle, gathering, imposthume, peccant humor, issue, rot, canker, cold sore, fever sore, cancer, carcinoma, leukemia, neoplastic disease, malignancy, tumor, caries, mortification, corruption, gangrene, sphacelus, sphacelation, leprosy, eruption, rash, breaking out, fever, temperature, calenture, inflammation, ague, angina pectoris, appendicitis, Asiatic cholera, spasmodic cholera, biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, blennorrhagia, blennorrhoea, blood poisoning, bloodstroke, bloody flux, brash, breakbone fever, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever, heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy, hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, bronchocele, canker rash, cardialgia, carditis, endocarditis, cholera, asphyxia, chlorosis, chorea, cynanche, dartre, enanthem, enanthema, erysipelas, exanthem, exanthema, gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness, grip, grippe, influenza, flu, hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw, measles, mumps, polio, necrosis, pertussis, phthisis, pneumonia, psora, pyaemia, pyrosis, quinsy, rachitis, ringworm, rubeola, St. Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma, syntexis, tetanus, tetter, tonsillitis, tonsilitis, tracheocele, trachoma, trismus, varicella, varicosis, variola, water qualm, whooping cough, yellow fever, yellow jack, fatal disease, dangerous illness, galloping consumption, churchyard cough, general breaking up, break up of the system, idiocy insanity, martyr to disease, cripple, the halt the lame and the blind, valetudinary, valetudinarian, invalid, patient, case, sickroom, sick- chamber, pathology, etiology, nosology, anthrax, bighead, blackleg, blackquarter, cattle plague, glanders, mange, scrapie, milk sickness, heartworm, feline leukemia, roundworms, quarter-evil, quarter-ill, rinderpest, virus, bacterium, bacteria, DNA virus, RNA virus, rhinovirus, rhabdovirus, picornavirus, herpesvirus, cytomegalovirus, CMV, human immunodefficiency virus, HIV, diseased, ailing, ill, ill of, taken ill, seized with, indisposed, unwell, sick, squeamish, poorly, seedy, affected with illness, afflicted with illness, laid up, confined, bedridden, invalided, in hospital, on the sick list, out of health, out of sorts, under the weather, valetudinary, unsound, unhealthy, sickly, morbid, morbose, healthless, infirm, chlorotic, unbraced, drooping, flagging, lame, crippled, halting, morbid, tainted, vitiated, peccant, contaminated, poisoned, tabid, mangy, leprous, cankered, rotten, rotten to the core, rotten at the core, withered, palsied, paralytic, dyspeptic, luetic, pneumonic, pulmonic, phthisic, rachitic, syntectic, syntectical, tabetic, varicose, touched in the wind, broken-winded, spavined, gasping, hors de combat, weakly, weakened, decrepit, decayed, incurable, in declining health, cranky, in a bad way, in danger, prostrate, moribund, morbific epidemic, endemic, zymotic.