hemorrhage

American  

[hem-er-ij, hem-rij] / ˈhɛm ər ɪdʒ, ˈhɛm rɪdʒ /

noun

• hemorrhages
  plural

1. a profuse discharge of blood, as from a ruptured blood vessel; bleeding.

2. the loss of assets, especially in large amounts.

3. any widespread or uncontrolled loss or diffusion.

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verb (used without object)

hemorrhaged, hemorrhaging

1. to bleed profusely.

2. to lose assets, especially in large amounts.

verb (used with object)

hemorrhaged, hemorrhaging

1. to lose (assets).

   a company that was hemorrhaging money.

hemorrhage Scientific  

/ hĕm′ər-ĭj /

1. Excessive or uncontrollable bleeding, often caused by trauma, surgical or obstetrical complications, or the advanced stages of certain illnesses, such as cirrhosis and peptic ulcer disease.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hemorrhagic
  adjective
• posthemorrhagic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• hemorrhages
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of hemorrhage

1665–75; < Latin haemorrhagia < Greek haimorrhagía. See hemo-, -rrhagia

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Explanation

Medically speaking, a hemorrhage is a rapid loss of blood. If you fall and hit your head really hard, the doctors will check to see there's no cerebral hemorrhage, or bleeding in your brain. Hemorrhage is pronounced HEM-or-edge. Blame the Greeks for the funny spelling, because like many medical terms, this one comes from Greek roots. Besides the medical meaning, we use hemorrhage to mean the uncontrollable loss of other things. If sudden disaster is making you hemorrhage money, you'll have to cut back on fancy dinners and new shoes. Can I recommend frozen pizza?

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hemorrhage hemorrhages hemorrhaged hemorrhaging

Researchers found no comparable increases in intracerebral hemorrhage, which involves bleeding directly into the brain, or subarachnoid hemorrhage, which occurs when bleeding develops in the space surrounding the brain.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026

It included four dense paragraphs citing evidence of the high risks of sepsis and hemorrhage if the medical team waited to empty her uterus.

From Salon ● May 27, 2026

Kikuo Hatakeyama, 72, has served as the mayor of Hachirogata in north-east Japan since 2008, but fell ill in February and suffered a brain hemorrhage.

From BBC ● May 9, 2026

Money continues to hemorrhage, as does the roster of big-name golfers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026

He had no idea what was wrong with the man, except that he was obviously having some kind of massive hemorrhage.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

Monoclonal antibodies that are indicated for the early treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, for example, have a risk of brain hemorrhages and bleeds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026

Fluffy white clouds and red hemorrhages, the work of cytomegalovirus, bloomed across patients’ retinas until they went blind.

From Slate ● Jan. 31, 2025

And then, on one random Wednesday, my left eye hemorrhages and fills with blood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2024

She helps singers dealing with polyps, nodules, hemorrhages, cysts, acid reflux, vocal fold swelling.

From New York Times ● Feb. 7, 2024

The patient continued to bleed from the bowels, and these hemorrhages were now as black as pitch.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

But as this upstart took on the PGA Tour, LIV struggled to gain a commercial foothold and hemorrhaged money after teeing off in 2022.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

The early days were rife with failure and the operation hemorrhaged money.

From Barron's ● May 20, 2026

However, while the city remains internationally synonymous with movie magic, it has hemorrhaged production jobs to other states and countries that offer generous tax incentives, cheaper labor and more filming-friendly bureaucracies.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2025

For almost 90 miles, he pushed the other plane as both jets hemorrhaged fuel, until they crossed the border with Laos.

From New York Times ● Dec. 21, 2023

They had both hemorrhaged badly, and blood plasma was in short supply our needs being low on the wartime priority list.

From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston

Lucky for its fans, South Point owner Michael Gaughan is perfectly content to continue hemorrhaging money on food.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

The tax — a half-penny of every dollar spent in the county — is meant to prop up local hospitals and clinics that are hemorrhaging funding after recent federal cuts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026

Misoprostol has been available by prescription for decades as a treatment for stomach ulcers and to manage postpartum hemorrhaging.

From BBC ● May 1, 2026

“I have a disease that will inevitably make me completely disabled, and I can’t afford the treatment because I’m hemorrhaging money to a 20-year-old debt.”

From Salon ● Mar. 17, 2026

But eventually I started to see why the business was hemorrhaging money.

From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah

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