migraine
Americannoun
-
migraines
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of migraine
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin hēmicrānia hemicrania; cf. megrim
Compare meaning
How does migraine compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A migraine is a severe headache. When you get a migraine, you'll probably want to stay in bed, in a dark room, until it passes. When you get a headache that's so painful that you can't work or function, you've probably got a migraine. It's usually women who get migraines, and you are either a person who gets migraines throughout your life, or you never get one at all. Migraines often come with side effects like nausea and blurred vision, and they often affect just one side of the head. The word comes from the Greek hemi-, "half" and kranion, "skull."
Vocabulary lists containing migraine
Before the Ever After
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Planet Middle School
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The Lions of Little Rock
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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:
Lauren, 29, was seven when she got her first migraine and went on to have them regularly - by the time she was 24, they were happening every day.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Munro said headaches were a symptom of migraine attacks, but so too are "visual disturbances, nausea and vomiting, sometimes numbness and tingling, sometimes abdominal pain, sometimes dizziness".
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
My mother remarked, approvingly, that the lighting didn’t give her a migraine.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
Ipsen earlier this year said a late-stage clinical trial showed Dysport delivered benefits in the treatment of both episodic and chronic migraine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
It smells, but the migraine is fading away.
From "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera
Lauren was training to become a biomedical scientist in the NHS but the lights and overstimulation of Singleton Hospital were so intense she had daily migraines.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
That means the migraines become more regular and can become chronic if effective treatment is not applied.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
The move came after pilots said they had repeatedly noticed odors in the aircraft associated with suspected toxic fume events and had experienced migraines while flying the planes, according to people familiar with the decision.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
The retired nurse, 82, said the pollution made her afraid to go out and aggravated her dizziness and migraines.
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
For example, I learned that, once a month, the general suffered from blinding migraines that lasted almost a week.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
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.
