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leukaemia

British

/ luːˈkiːmɪə /

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

"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

Etymology

Origin of leukaemia

C19: from _leuco- + Greek haima blood

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.

Her seven-year-old daughter Gracie had over two years of treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, after she was diagnosed at the age of three.

From BBC • Mar. 26, 2026

Two sisters who believed they were fraternal twins discovered they were in fact identical - after one of them was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 23.

From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026

When Cross was diagnosed with leukaemia aged 24, she did not immediately blame the nuclear explosions in French Polynesia decades earlier.

From Barron's • Jan. 22, 2026

Seventeen years later, she was diagnosed with leukaemia, in a family where her grandmother, mother and aunt already suffered from thyroid cancer.

From Barron's • Jan. 22, 2026

The excess over the normal is in many cases small; it is said to be absent in some persons, and rarely, if ever reaches the quantity found in leukaemia.

From The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition by Duncan, A. W.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023