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  

/ sɪnˈdrɒmɪk, 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

In North and South America, including the Andes virus that has recently been in the news, infections can lead to hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome.

From Science Daily • Jun. 22, 2026

Regenxbio’s Navsunli therapy targets Hunter syndrome, a rare genetic disease that causes irreversible brain damage and cell death, usually leading to death in a patient’s midteens.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 22, 2026

Chris had a dangerous strain of E. coli, known as O157:H7, which led to hemolytic uremic syndrome.

From Salon • Jun. 22, 2026

He said there were countless videos featuring the AI-generated figures with Down syndrome and said the same accounts had been trying to sell identical products using elderly synthetic characters.

From Barron's • Jun. 18, 2026

When I left, they both cried, my mom explaining that it was just empty-nest syndrome, that they were just so proud of me, that they loved me so much.

From "Looking for Alaska" by John Green

Related Words

• ailment
• disorder
• malady
• problem
• sickness