coronary
Americanadjective
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of or relating to the human heart, with respect to health.
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Medicine/Medical.
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pertaining to the arteries that supply the heart tissues and originate in the root of the aorta.
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encircling like a crown, as certain blood vessels.
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of or like a crown.
adjective
noun
Discover More
The word coronary is often used by itself in an informal sense to refer to a heart attack or coronary thrombosis.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of coronary
1600–10; < Latin corōnārius, equivalent to corōn ( a ) crown + -ārius -ary; in reference to the heart, extended from coronary artery, coronary vein, etc.
Explanation
In medical terminology, coronary refers to the protective ring of blood vessels surrounding the heart and supplying it with oxygen and other nutrients. Coronary is generally used as a short term for coronary thrombosis, in other words a heart attack. Thrombosis is the act of those vessels clogging up. So cut back on the French fries and hit that exercise bike. The term coronary comes from the Latin word corona for crown, meaning king. In medieval times it was the duty of the curuner to protect the local interests of the crown, and so the term coronary was later developed by doctors to describe the way the blood vessels around the heart protected it.
Vocabulary lists containing coronary
The Lost Hero
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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:
When I had my heart attack, they put three stents in my coronary arteries and blah, blah, blah.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
A stent is a small wire tube that can be inserted into coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart, if they have become narrowed or blocked.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Graham’s office said the medical examiner in Washington, D.C., attributed the South Carolina Republican’s death to aortic dissection, due to coronary artery disease.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
The season began with Clarkson discussing treatment he received for a coronary issue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
At age thirty-nine he’d already invented the first technique for suturing blood vessels together, and had used it to perform the first coronary bypass and develop methods for transplanting organs.
From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
Cramer began experiencing long bouts of anxiety, increasingly severe panic attacks and imaginary coronaries.
From New York Times ● May 12, 2011
In hindsight, it's a miracle there weren't a fair few coronaries to go with the coronation of the class of 2005.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 27, 2010
"People who get fat get coronaries, and the same is true of corporations," says Jim Patterson, public relations director of American Oil Co.
From Time Magazine Archive
Men up and down the storm collapse with coronaries, snow shovels in their hands, cheeks gone a deathly color, like frostbitten plums.
From Time Magazine Archive
If we can rid ourselves of some of our chronic, degenerative diseases, and cancer, strokes, and coronaries, we might go on and on.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
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.
