Meaning & use
autoimmune
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivenot comparablemedical
Describing a condition in which the body's defense system attacks its own healthy cells or tissues by mistake.
Grammar: Used before a noun: an autoimmune disease. It is not usually compared, so avoid saying more autoimmune.
Patterns
- an autoimmune disease
- an autoimmune condition
- autoimmune response
- autoimmune disorder
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects the joints.
Her doctor ordered tests to check for an autoimmune condition.
In an autoimmune reaction, the immune system mistakes normal tissue for a threat.
adjectivenot comparablemedicalspecialist
Relating to this kind of mistaken attack by the body's own immune system.
Grammar: Often used in medical phrases like autoimmune response or autoimmune damage.
Patterns
- autoimmune response
- autoimmune damage
- autoimmune attack
The researchers studied the autoimmune response in mice.
Treatment aims to reduce autoimmune damage to the kidneys.
Common combinations
- autoimmune disease
- Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease.
- autoimmune disorder
- She lives with a rare autoimmune disorder.
- autoimmune response
- The vaccine did not trigger an autoimmune response.
- autoimmune condition
- Several autoimmune conditions run in her family.
- autoimmune therapy
- New autoimmune therapy targets specific immune cells.
Synonyms and how they differ
- immune-mediated
- A broader medical term for conditions caused by immune system activity; it includes autoimmune diseases but also reactions to outside triggers.
Word family
Commonly confused: autoimmune or immune? autoimmune or immunity?
autoimmune vs immune
Immune usually means protected from a disease, as in immune to measles. Autoimmune means the immune system is attacking the body itself.
autoimmune vs immunity
Immunity is the noun for being protected; autoimmunity is the noun for the body attacking itself.
Practice
Which sentence uses "autoimmune" correctly?
Choose one answer.
Autoimmune describes diseases where the body attacks its own tissue, so lupus fits. The other options describe protection from disease, which is immunity, not autoimmunity.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “autoimmune”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.