diagnostic

American  

[dahy-uhg-nos-tik] / ˌdaɪ əgˈnɒs tɪk /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or used in diagnosis.

2. serving to identify or characterize; being a precise indication.

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noun

• diagnostics
  plural

1. diagnosis.

2. a symptom or characteristic of value in diagnosis.

3. Medicine/Medical. a device or substance used for the analysis or detection of diseases or other medical conditions.

4. Computers.

   1. a message output by a computer diagnosing an error in a computer program, computer system, or component device.

   2. a program or subroutine that produces such messages.

diagnostic British  

/ ˌdaɪəɡˈnɒstɪk /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or of value in diagnosis

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noun

1. med any symptom that provides evidence for making a specific diagnosis

2. a diagnosis

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• postdiagnostic
  adjective
• prediagnostic
  adjective
• diagnostically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• diagnostics
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of diagnostic

1615–25; < Greek diagnōstikós, equivalent to diagnōst ( ós ) distinguished (akin to diágnōsis; see diagnosis) + -ikos -ic

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Explanation

Anything diagnostic has to do with disease, especially figuring out which one a patient has. If your doctor wants to run diagnostic tests, then she isn't exactly sure what's wrong with you — so the tests will help diagnose you (figure out what's wrong). The TV show House is all about diagnostic tests: it features illnesses that are unusual and hard to determine. But anything diagnostic is trying to figure out what's wrong. A writing test could be called diagnostic if it's trying to determine how good or bad your writing skills are.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

diagnostic diagnostics

When a cancer signal is detected, Galleri is designed to predict the cancer signal origin with high accuracy to help guide diagnostic evaluation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

Sullivan says preparedness also needs to involve much more than creating diagnostic tests, vaccines and drugs.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

Study co-author Dr. Aysha Al-Ani cautioned that the findings are unlikely to produce a new diagnostic test or therapy immediately.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

The preliminary findings said there was "insufficient clinical curiosity" in some cases and a lack of collaboration with multidisciplinary team colleagues, allowing potential diagnostic errors to persist.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

For my annual physical in 1972 he used diagnostic methods popular back in medical school in 1910.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

Synnovis is diagnostics and pathology service which operates as a partnership between the hospitals and German company Synlab.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

"As part of a separate $7 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant involving Penn State, University of Delaware and UF/IFAS, we are developing advanced diagnostics and sustainable solutions to strengthen mushroom farms nationwide."

From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026

A.I.-powered diagnostics distill all of this into one clear picture of your entire body, in 360-degree, piercing-into-the-soul, high-resolution detail.

From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026

A visit includes a scan, labs and other diagnostics.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

"But all we have left is the wait. Your work schedules are cleared. All scientific experiments are suspended. Sleep if you can, run diagnostics on your equipment if you can't."

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir

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