Meaning & use
diagnosis
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A doctor's conclusion about what illness a person has, reached by examining the person and the symptoms.
Grammar: Plural is diagnoses. Countable for one result (a diagnosis of asthma), uncountable for the process (early diagnosis saves lives).
Patterns
- a diagnosis of something
- make a diagnosis
Her diagnosis was a mild form of asthma.
Early diagnosis makes the disease easier to treat.
The doctor ordered more tests before making a diagnosis.
nouncountable or uncountablefigurative
A careful judgment about what is causing a fault or difficulty in a machine, system or situation.
Grammar: Used outside medicine with the cause of a problem: a diagnosis of the engine fault.
Patterns
- a diagnosis of something
The mechanic's diagnosis was a faulty sensor.
Her diagnosis of the company's problems was blunt.
The consultant offered a quick diagnosis of why sales had dropped.
Word forms
| plural | diagnoses |
|---|
Common combinations
- make a diagnosis
- It took three visits to make a diagnosis.
- receive a diagnosis
- He received a diagnosis of diabetes last spring.
- early diagnosis
- Early diagnosis improves the chances of recovery.
- confirm a diagnosis
- A blood test confirmed the diagnosis.
- a correct diagnosis
- A correct diagnosis can take time.
- misdiagnosis
- The family sued over a misdiagnosis.
Synonyms and how they differ
- verdict
- Verdict is used for a judgment after considering evidence, mostly in law, and sounds figurative in medical talk.
- identification
- Identification means working out what something is, a general word that lacks medical flavor.
- assessment
- Assessment is a wider evaluation that may not name a particular condition, while diagnosis names a cause.
- prognosis
- Prognosis is sometimes mixed up with diagnosis, but it predicts what will happen, not what the problem is.
Word family
- diagnose verb
- to identify an illness or fault
- diagnostic adjective
- used for identifying problems
- diagnostician noun
- a person skilled at diagnosing
- misdiagnosis noun
- an incorrect diagnosis
Commonly confused: diagnosis or prognosis?
diagnosis vs prognosis
A prognosis predicts how an illness will develop; a diagnosis names the illness.
Practice
The doctor said the ___ was clear: a broken wrist, which would heal in six weeks.
Choose one answer.
The diagnosis names the problem, a broken wrist. A prognosis would be the prediction about healing, a symptom is a sign, and a remedy is a treatment.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “diagnosis”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.