hemorrhage
Americannoun
-
a profuse discharge of blood, as from a ruptured blood vessel; bleeding.
-
the loss of assets, especially in large amounts.
-
any widespread or uncontrolled loss or diffusion.
verb (used without object)
-
to bleed profusely.
-
to lose assets, especially in large amounts.
verb (used with object)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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?
Vocabulary lists containing hemorrhage
The Catcher in the Rye
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Maus I: My Father Bleeds History
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "H"
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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.
See Examples For:
The researchers also found strong evidence that daily aspirin increases the risk of serious extracranial hemorrhage and likely raises the risk of hemorrhagic stroke.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 4, 2026
French reports said that Macron appeared to have a sub-conjunctival hemorrhage, which is a broken blood vessel in his eye.
From BBC ● Jan. 20, 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
Doctors found that he had suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage resulting from a ruptured brain aneurysm.
From Slate ● Dec. 8, 2025
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
Fluffy white clouds and red hemorrhages, the work of cytomegalovirus, bloomed across patients’ retinas until they went blind.
From Slate ● Jan. 31, 2025
My left eye suffers hemorrhages that can cause episodes of total blindness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 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
"Urtica dioica. Effective in treating kidney disorders, hemorrhages, and gout."
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
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
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 next morning, while the former chef was still in Palm Springs, the filing states that she awoke experiencing severe hemorrhaging and drove herself to the emergency room.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 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
The metaphorical potency of Alexei’s illness was also undeniable—symptomatic of an empire gone sick, dependent on bandages and prayers, hemorrhaging at its core.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
