LEUKAEMIA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does leukaemia mean? 

• LEUKAEMIA (noun)
  The noun LEUKAEMIA has 1 sense:

1. malignant neoplasm of blood-forming tissues; characterized by abnormal proliferation of leukocytes; one of the four major types of cancer

  Familiarity information: LEUKAEMIA used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LEUKAEMIA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Malignant neoplasm of blood-forming tissues; characterized by abnormal proliferation of leukocytes; one of the four major types of cancer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

cancer of the blood; leucaemia; leukaemia; leukemia

Hypernyms ("leukaemia" is a kind of...):

cancer; malignant neoplastic disease (any malignant growth or tumor caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division; it may spread to other parts of the body through the lymphatic system or the blood stream)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "leukaemia"):

acute leukemia (rapidly progressing leukemia)

chronic leukemia (slowly progressing leukemia)

lymphocytic leukemia (leukemia characterized by enlargement of lymphoid tissues and lymphocytic cells in the circulating blood)

histiocytic leukaemia; histiocytic leukemia; monoblastic leukaemia; monoblastic leukemia; monocytic leukaemia; monocytic leukemia (leukemia characterized by the proliferation of monocytes and monoblasts in the blood)

myeloblastic leukemia (a malignant neoplasm of blood-forming tissues; characterized by numerous myeloblasts in the blood stream)

granulocytic leukemia; myelocytic leukemia (a malignant neoplasm of blood-forming tissues; marked by proliferation of myelocytes and their presence in the blood)

 Context examples 

Chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) is a biphasic disease, initiated by expression of the BCR/ABL fusion gene product in self-renewing, haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs).

(Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)