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

Rather than collecting all new samples, the team sequenced DNA from tissues that veterinarians had already obtained for diagnostic purposes.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 27, 2026

The team hopes those microbial signatures could eventually form the basis of a simple diagnostic tool that helps pest professionals determine whether termite evidence is recent enough to justify treatment.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

Zydus has begun marketing its diagnostic imaging dye in the U.S., according to the Food and Drug Administration, the analysts say.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 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

This means pharmaceutical companies, scientists, and universities control what research can be done on those genes, and how much resulting therapies and diagnostic tests will cost.

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

Money has been poured into startups focused on daily monitoring, early detection, diagnostics, and intervention.

From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026

A visit includes a scan, labs and other diagnostics.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 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

In April 2027, UChicago Medicine will open the AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion, Chicago's first freestanding cancer pavilion, to bring advanced diagnostics, innovative treatments, translational discoveries, and comprehensive support to patients and the community.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

I ran both through full diagnostics to confirm they were working correctly.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir

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