lumpectomy

American

[luhm-pek-tuh-mee] / lʌmˈpɛk tə mi /

noun

the surgical removal of a breast cyst or tumor.

lumpectomy British

/ lʌmˈpɛktəmɪ /

noun

the surgical removal of a tumour in a breast

"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

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

lumpectomies

plural

Etymology

Origin of lumpectomy

First recorded in 1970–75; lump ¹ + -ectomy

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.

I watched my mom go through a lot with cancer: lumpectomy surgeries, a bilateral mastectomy, multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 4, 2026

"Maybe it wasn't. Maybe I could have had a lumpectomy."

From BBC • Nov. 28, 2025

Within weeks of her 69th birthday, she had a lumpectomy.

From New York Times • May 1, 2024

They also tended to favor the surgeon’s schedule more than the patient’s needs — removing a breast entirely took less time and required less technical skill than the lumpectomy procedures emerging in the 1980s.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 5, 2023

At age 55 I still have all my body parts, and have had no surgery except the original lumpectomy.

From How and When to Be Your Own Doctor by Solomon, Steve

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