syndrome

American  

[sin-drohm, -druhm] / ˈsɪn droʊm, -drəm /

noun

• syndromes
  plural

1. Pathology, Psychiatry. a group of symptoms that together are characteristic of a specific disorder, disease, or the like.

2. a group of related or coincident things, events, actions, etc.

3. the pattern of symptoms that characterize or indicate a particular social condition.

4. a predictable, characteristic pattern of behavior, action, etc., that tends to occur under certain circumstances.

   the retirement syndrome of endless golf and bridge games; the feast-or-famine syndrome of big business.

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syndrome British  

/ ˈsɪndrəʊm /

noun

1. med any combination of signs and symptoms that are indicative of a particular disease or disorder

2. a symptom, characteristic, or set of symptoms or characteristics indicating the existence of a condition, problem, etc

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syndrome Scientific  

/ sĭn′drōm′ /

1. An abnormal condition or disease that is identified by an established group of signs and symptoms.

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syndrome Cultural  

1. A set of signs and symptoms that appear together and characterize a disease or medical condition. AIDS is an example of a syndrome.

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Discover More

A collection of attitudes or behaviors that go together is often called a syndrome.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• syndromic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• syndromes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of syndrome

1535–45; < New Latin < Greek syndromḗ concurrence, combination, equivalent to syn- syn- + drom-, base meaning “run” ( see -drome) + -ē feminine noun suffix

Explanation

When you and your friends hang out together, you call it a party. When symptoms of an illness hang out together, they call it a syndrome. If you receive an invitation, politely decline. Syndrome comes from a Greek word that combines the root “to run” (dramein) with the prefix “together” (sun-). When many or all of the symptoms for a disease “run together,” that's a syndrome. You can also use syndrome in a figurative way to describe a type or pattern of behavior. If you have the “I'll do it tomorrow” syndrome, you put off doing a lot of things. At least you got around to reading about syndrome today.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

syndrome syndromes

“I’m a first-gen Mexican American woman and I was supposed to live at home until I get married,” she explains; but it also exposed her to the concept of impostor syndrome.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

Vidali says prescribing GLP-1s off-label is becoming more mainstream, particularly in fertility practices, for women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, or PMOS, and related metabolic issues such as insulin resistance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

In these cases, a heart defect is part of a broader genetic syndrome that can also affect other parts of the body.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026

She is still not fully recovered and suffers with post-sepsis syndrome, which leads to dizzy spells and extreme fatigue.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

My back feels fine, meaning I’m not feeling it at all; even my wrists, damaged by carpal tunnel syndrome years ago, are issuing no complaints.

From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich

He was also concerned about how it would be received, especially for people with autism and other syndromes mentioned in the programme.

From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025

From a diagnostic standpoint, it overlaps with obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and trauma-related syndromes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2025

And for those with hypermobility syndromes, meaning overly flexible joints, “it’s important to be mindful that increased stretching could lead to dislocations of the joints.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2025

But to move from hypothesis to proven treatment, he says, the scientific community urgently needs double-blind, randomized, controlled trials—the gold standard for treatment research—on nicotine therapy for post-acute infection syndromes.

From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2025

I am not someone to pity, with an unstable mind and weird pain syndromes.

From "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart

Related Words

• ailment
• disorder
• malady
• problem
• sickness