leukaemia

esp US leukemia

noun

an acute or chronic disease characterized by a gross proliferation of leucocytes, which crowd into the bone marrow, spleen, lymph nodes, etc, and suppress the blood-forming apparatus

Word Origin

C19: from leuco- + Greek haima blood

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Examples from the Web for leukaemia

Contemporary Examples

Leukaemia patient Zakwan Anuar, 15, died two weeks after they visited his hospice in Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia, last month.
William and Kate Mourn Teenage Cancer-Sufferer
Tom Sykes
October 1, 2012

Word Origin and History for leukaemia

n.

alternative spelling of leukemia.