Meaning & use
ataxia
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Meanings
noununcountablemedical
A condition in which the nervous system damage makes a person unable to coordinate their movements smoothly, causing clumsy walking, speech, or hand control.
Grammar: Usually uncountable, with types named by a modifier: hereditary ataxia.
Patterns
- ataxia in someone
- a symptom of ataxia
Her ataxia made it hard to walk in a straight line.
Damage to the cerebellum can cause ataxia.
The doctor tested for ataxia by asking him to touch his nose.
nouncountablemedical
A particular type of this disorder, often inherited, that gets worse over time.
Grammar: Countable when naming types: the ataxias.
Patterns
- a form of ataxia
Friedreich's ataxia is an inherited form that appears in childhood.
Spinocerebellar ataxias affect families across generations.
Researchers study several ataxias to look for treatments.
Word forms
| plural | ataxias |
|---|
Common combinations
- hereditary ataxia
- Hereditary ataxia runs in her family.
- cerebellar ataxia
- Cerebellar ataxia affects balance and coordination.
- gait ataxia
- Gait ataxia gives a swaying, uneven walk.
- suffer from ataxia
- He suffers from ataxia after a stroke.
- progressive ataxia
- The disease causes progressive ataxia over years.
Synonyms and how they differ
- incoordination
- Incoordination is a plain description of poor muscle control, whereas ataxia is the formal medical name.
- clumsiness
- Clumsiness is an everyday word for awkwardness and does not imply a neurological cause.
- imbalance
- Imbalance covers any loss of balance, but ataxia involves a lack of coordination in movement.
Word family
- ataxic adjective
- affected by or showing ataxia
- atactic adjective
- another word for ataxic
- cerebellum noun
- the part of the brain that controls coordination
Commonly confused: ataxia or apraxia? ataxia or atrophy?
ataxia vs apraxia
Apraxia is trouble carrying out learned movements on purpose, while ataxia is poor coordination of movement.
ataxia vs atrophy
Atrophy means the wasting away of muscle or tissue and is a different problem from lack of coordination.
Practice
A neurologist notes that a patient staggers and cannot touch their finger to their nose accurately. This suggests ___.
Choose one answer.
Ataxia is poor coordination of movement. Amnesia affects memory, insomnia affects sleep and anemia affects the blood.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ataxia”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.