gangrene
Americannoun
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necrosis or death of soft tissue due to obstructed circulation, usually followed by decomposition and putrefaction.
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moral or spiritual corruption and decadence that pervades an individual or group.
“This church body has been afflicted with a spiritual gangrene that is poisoning our relationship with the Lord,” the preacher expostulated.
- Synonyms:
- degeneracy, depravity, rot, decay
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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death and decay of tissue as the result of interrupted blood supply, disease, or injury
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moral decay or corruption
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gangrenesimple
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gangrenessimple
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have gangrenedperfect
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has gangrenedperfect
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am gangreningprogressive
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are gangreningprogressive
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is gangreningprogressive
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have been gangreningperfect progressive
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has been gangreningperfect progressive
Past
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gangrenedsimple
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had gangrenedperfect
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was gangreningprogressive
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were gangreningprogressive
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had been gangreningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gangrene
First recorded in 1535–45; from Middle French gangrene (earlier cancrene ), from Latin gangraena, from Greek gángraina “an eating sore”
Compare meaning
How does gangrene compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
You don't want gangrene, that's for sure. It's the infection that can develop around a wound that kills the tissue, turning it into a terrible stinking sore. In the days before antibiotics even the smallest scratch could lead to gangrene, and doctors would often cut off a finger or even a limb and then seal it with a red hot poker rather than risk the infection spreading. Special surgeons known as sawbones were famed for the speed they could amputate a limb to avoid gangrene setting in. Enough to stop you ever being nostalgic about the good old days.
Vocabulary lists containing gangrene
The Things They Carried
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National Nurses Week: Medical Branches and Conditions
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Salt to the Sea
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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.
To really investigate gangrene, he would need to go where infection was far more plentiful; not the battlefield, but the hospital.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 6, 2026
On 28 June, the family were told Mr Trotter had a condition called Fournier's gangrene and nothing more could be done.
From BBC • Jan. 20, 2026
Nursing employees told the investigators that the 69-year-old man, who had been admitted with gangrene on his feet, was often confused and sometimes tried to pull out his tubes.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 20, 2025
Her lower legs were amputated after she developed gangrene at age 7.
From Seattle Times • May 15, 2024
They call it "sepsis," and they know from bitter experience how quickly a "septic" wound can go from slight redness to gross swelling to a fatal condition called gangrene.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Definitions 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.
