amputee
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of amputee
1905–10; amputat(ed) ( def. ) + -ee, modeled on French amputé, past participle of amputer to amputate
Explanation
A person who's had an arm or a leg surgically removed is an amputee. Some amputees get artificial limbs that allow them to be nearly as mobile as before the loss of a limb. Some amputees lose a limb in an accident, while others have surgery to stop a disease, like gangrene, from spreading from an arm or leg to the rest of the body. The surgery to remove a limb is called an amputation, and it's also the word amputee comes from. An amputation was originally "a cutting off of tree branches," from the Latin amputare, "cut off, cut around, or prune."
Vocabulary lists containing amputee
A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Salt to the Sea
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The Running Dream
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For amputee Nigel Ward, the evidence is undeniable.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
In Massachusetts, Ford took on the case of Vincent Gunning, a Navy veteran and amputee who was being evicted from a home he inherited from his aunt when she died in 2008.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
"Our own 'World Cup' starts on land that is destroyed, devastated, full of hardship and wounds," added his colleague Jaber al-Basheeti, mentioning amputee players, destroyed facilities and numerous shortages of equipment.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
A nine-year-old boy who became the youngest amputee to climb Wales' highest peak now has his sights set on conquering the Three Peaks challenge.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
She would not miss him as she did now, when the ache of his absence was her unremitting companion—like the phantom pain of an amputee.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
