radiologist
Americannoun
-
radiologists
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Explanation
A radiologist is a doctor who detects and treats conditions using medical imaging, like x-ray machines. If you think you've broken your arm after a fall at the roller rink, you may need to see a radiologist. A radiologist can x-ray your arm or leg and get a picture of the bones inside. Other tools available to radiologists include CT scans, MRIs, and ultrasound. These are all imaging techniques, and the word radiologist comes from the radiation that x-rays and CT scans use to create an image (from the Latin radiationem, "a shining"). Instead of radiation, ultrasounds use sound waves and MRIs use magnetic fields and radio waves.
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:
The temperature read 36C but the radiologist, from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, said it felt hotter.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
During the procedure, an interventional radiologist uses a thin catheter to reach the affected blood vessels and injects tiny particles that block blood flow to them.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 17, 2026
Instead, the radiologist missed it as a result of being so focused on the lump in the left breast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
The male victim, Eric Cordes, was a longtime radiologist at Adventist Health Simi Valley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2025
In fact, it was her radiologist who was potentially at fault.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Several radiologists tell her they wouldn’t want to work without AI assistance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
Dr. Laurie Margolies, the chief of breast imaging at the Dubin Breast Center at Mount Sinai, has spent nearly four decades reading mammograms, starting back when radiologists squinted at film on light boxes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
However, musculoskeletal radiologists performed significantly better than other subspecialists.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 26, 2026
Two radiologists are required to read every mammogram, and patients are called back in for further tests where there is any dubiety - but still, 20% of cancers are missed.
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2026
I have just learned that in many small and some medium-size hospitals in the US, radiologists are outsourcing reading of CAT scans to doctors in India and Australia!!!
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
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.
