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.

---

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.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hemorrhagic
  adjective
• posthemorrhagic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• hemorrhages
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of hemorrhage

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

---

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

Gary Coleman died in May 2010 at age 42 after suffering a brain hemorrhage in an accidental fall at his home in Utah.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2026

He looks at me in a way that causes a minor cerebral hemorrhage.

From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson

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

The tiny hemorrhages are sometimes found in healthy people and those with Alzheimer’s or other illnesses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2024

For the study, researchers looked at 4,879 people who had ruptured brain aneurysms, called aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhages.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2024

Then there’s the tendency to conflate concussions, which are considered mild traumatic brain injuries, with more severe conditions, like penetrating head injuries or brain hemorrhages.

From Slate ● Mar. 17, 2024

The skin develops red spots, called petechiae, which are hemorrhages under the skin.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

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

From Barron's ● May 20, 2026

With only $2 million to $4 million in annual sales, the New Jersey-based business hemorrhaged money.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 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

The company has secured prime rights for major leagues and competitions across Europe and beyond, though it has hemorrhaged considerable amounts of cash along the way.

From New York Times ● Dec. 4, 2024

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

“Sometimes I think I can feel the planet just hemorrhaging under all this greed. Like it’s tectonic,” she laments.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

“They’re saving on equipment but hemorrhaging men instead. The approach is yielding diminishing gains,” said Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 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

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• ooze

---