-ism, -ismus
(Greek, ismos; Latin, ismus: a suffix: belief in, practice of, condition of, process, characteristic behavior or manner, abnormal state, distinctive feature or trait)
1. The absence of orientation movements in response to gravity: When participating in a space flight simulator, the astronaut experienced ageotropism and so he had no sense of responding to gravity.
2. Turning away from the earth: Elena was studying plant ageotropism and so she was growing plants in a gravity free environment.
3. A reference to parts of plants that would be expected to grow as gravity pulls them down, but instead grow upward; such as, the knee roots of cypress trees: Marcella tripped over the ageotropisms of the tree in the swamp because the roots were sticking up out of the earth.
2. Turning away from the earth: Elena was studying plant ageotropism and so she was growing plants in a gravity free environment.
3. A reference to parts of plants that would be expected to grow as gravity pulls them down, but instead grow upward; such as, the knee roots of cypress trees: Marcella tripped over the ageotropisms of the tree in the swamp because the roots were sticking up out of the earth.
aglobuliosis, aglobulism
An obsolete term for a condition characterised by anaemia.
agnosticism
1. The disbelief in any claims of ultimate knowledge.
2. The doctrine that certainty about first principles or absolute truth is unattainable and that only perceptual phenomena are objects of exact knowledge.
3. A religious orientation of doubt; a denial of ultimate knowledge of the existence of God: "Agnosticism holds that you can neither prove nor disprove God's existence."
2. The doctrine that certainty about first principles or absolute truth is unattainable and that only perceptual phenomena are objects of exact knowledge.
3. A religious orientation of doubt; a denial of ultimate knowledge of the existence of God: "Agnosticism holds that you can neither prove nor disprove God's existence."
A contention or rivalry for a prize in a contest: Agonism is the condition of a competitive struggle, especially, in the ancient Grecian athletic games or even in a political sense.
agrammatism
A form of aphasia characterized by an inability to construct a grammatical sentence, and the use of unintelligible or incorrect words; caused by a lesion in the dominant temporal lobe.
agrarianism
A movement for the equal division of landed property and for the promotion of agricultural interests.
agriculturism
The business of cultivating the soil; including the allied pursuits of gathering in the crops and rearing live stock; tillage, husbandry, farming.
aitiotropism (s), aitiotropisms (pl) (noun forms)
Any tropism (movement, response) resulting from an exogenous (external) stimulus.
albinism
1. The state or condition of being an albino.
2. A group of inherited disorders with deficiency or absence of pigment in the skin, hair, and eyes, or eyes only, due to an abnormality in production of melanin.
2. A group of inherited disorders with deficiency or absence of pigment in the skin, hair, and eyes, or eyes only, due to an abnormality in production of melanin.
albinoid, albinoidism, albinoism
Resembling an albino; having the appearance of an albino.
alcoholism (s) (noun)
1. Chronic alcohol abuse, dependence, or addiction; chronic excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages resulting in impairment of health and/or social or occupational functioning, and increasing adaptation to the effects of alcohol requiring increasing doses to achieve and sustain a desired effect; specific signs and symptoms of withdrawal usually are shown when one stops such drinking.
2. "Alcohol dependence" (currently the preferred term); "alcohol addiction".
2. "Alcohol dependence" (currently the preferred term); "alcohol addiction".
The terms refer to a variety of disorders associated with the repetitive consumption of alcohol, usually over a long period of time, in amounts that the drinker is unable to handle physiologically, emotionally, or socially.
People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim.
Bourbonic plague.
algidism
A spontaneous sensation of extreme cold.
allelism
The existence of alleles, or their relationship to one another.
allelomorphism
The existence, transmission, or inheritance of allelomorphs (one of several alternative forms of a gene).
