pathology

American  

[puh-thol-uh-jee] / pəˈθɒl ə dʒi /

noun

• pathologies
  plural

1. the science or the study of the origin, nature, and course of diseases.

2. the conditions and processes of a disease.

3. any deviation from a healthy, normal, or efficient condition.

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pathology British  

/ pəˈθɒlədʒɪ /

noun

1. the branch of medicine concerned with the cause, origin, and nature of disease, including the changes occurring as a result of disease

2. the manifestations of disease, esp changes occurring in tissues or organs

3. any variant or deviant condition from normal

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pathology Scientific  

/ pə-thŏl′ə-jē /

1. The scientific study of disease and its causes, processes, and effects.

2. The physical and mental abnormalities that result from disease or trauma.

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pathology Cultural  

1. A branch of medicine that explores the nature and cause of disease. Pathology also involves the study of bodily changes that occur as the result of disease.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pathologist
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pathologies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of pathology

First recorded in 1590–1600; earlier pathologia, from Latin, from Greek pathología; see patho- ( def. ), -logy ( def. )

Explanation

Pathology is the medical term for the way a disease works. A tumor is removed by a doctor trained in surgery, but you need a doctor trained in pathology to tell you if the tumor is cancer. Pathology derives from the Greek pathos "suffering" and ology "study of"––to give us "the study of disease," but often pathology means the disease's behavior––the cancer pathology is to take over healthy cells and grow cancerous tumors. We also use pathology to describe abnormal conditions that aren’t really diseases, like the pathology of Hollywood stars who live their lives in public and become obsessed with fitness.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pathology pathologies

"We usually think of the brain as a closed system," said Julia Belk, a postdoctoral scholar in pathology at Stanford Medicine and first author on the new study.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026

“While pathology is underway to better understand her illness, veterinary teams do not believe her condition was connected to that earlier loss.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026

Research from 2024 examined how effective AI chatbots were at simplifying pathology reports.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

While post-op pathology results revealed the inflammatory cancer was gone, it found cancer in 15 lymph nodes and a 1.8-centimetre grade three triple-negative tumour.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

It has to do with one of the questions which in the whole range of parasitic pathology can, with the greatest right, claim to be of practical importance.

From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy

"The more we can understand about cell death and what happens to cells after they die, the better we can understand disease pathologies and find new treatments," Stephanie said.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 24, 2026

My vocal cords were mostly moving as they should be, ruling out vocal cord paralysis or other pathologies.

From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2026

Ordinary struggles are reframed as pathologies, and accommodation becomes the default managerial response.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026

Mice brains are often used in scientific research into human brain pathologies including dementia because of key similarities between the two.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 29, 2025

I was elaborating upon my “legend” consistently and Luzan accepted my pathologies.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee