nevus
Americannoun
-
nevi
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of nevus
1685–95; spelling variant of Latin naevus mole
Explanation
A nevus is a mark on the skin, like a mole or a birthmark. Many people are born with a nevus somewhere on their bodies. Can you find yours? Whether you have a strawberry birthmark on your cheek, or a series of tiny moles dotting your shoulders, you can say you have a nevus. This word is most often used by doctors, including dermatologists (skin doctors), who like to keep an eye on nevi (which is the plural form of nevus). Every once in a while, a nevus will develop a malignancy, or become cancerous. The Latin root of nevus is gnaevus, "born in," or "birthmark."
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:
And while one hesitates to say “in spite of,” Ms. Naud has cultivated a healthy career in genre films with a very prominent nevus, or birthmark, under her right eye.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 9, 2025
Mr Rhodes was born with a large facial birthmark as a result of congenital melanocytic nevus and was left with scarring following multiple surgeries to remove it as a child.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2024
“Moles are not superficial — the nevus cells are down in the dermis,” said Robert T. Brodell, a tenured professor and chair of the dermatology department at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 26, 2022
He had a nevus - a little overgrowth of cells just over the iris of his eye - how on Earth could it have been replicated, she wondered.
From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2018
Because his hair was shorter in the back, I could now see a nevus on his neck.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
There were nevi and keratoses, but no melanomas or carcinomas.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 27, 2017
Pinpointing the precise cause of Aixa’s non-malignant tumors—a severe case of a skin condition known as congenital melanocytic nevi that is present at birth—is virtually impossible.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 23, 2016
New: nevi tud from the guveni, new milk from the cow.
From Romano Lavo-Lil: word book of the Romany; or, English Gypsy language by George Henry Borrow
According to Crocker, a still more extraordinary case, with extensive dermatolytic growths all over the back and nevi of all sizes elsewhere, is described and engraved in "Lavater's Physiognomy," 1848.
From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Walter L. (Walter Lytle) Pyle
Duyse reports a case of extensive hypertrichosis of the back in a girl aged nine years; her teeth were normal; there was pigmentation of the back and numerous pigmentary nevi on the face.
From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Walter L. (Walter Lytle) Pyle
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.
