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 she was talking about some subject other than diagnostic testing, she was very unprepossessing, very disingenuous,” said Fortune magazine reporter Roger Parloff.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

The combination of genetic data and medical histories allows researchers to investigate diseases in much greater detail, potentially uncovering important differences that conventional diagnostic methods cannot detect.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2026

A full diagnostic panel informs every guest’s customized itinerary.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

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

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

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

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

"Preparedness planning should extend beyond diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics to include operational readiness for multinational outbreak response," she said.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

The study, published in European Urology Oncology, was led by the University of Birmingham and a diagnostics company Nonacus, and involved nearly 1,000 patients at seven hospitals in England and Scotland.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

Physician recommended diagnostics and referred to specialist for ruling out infection or cancer.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

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