Meaning & use
mammoplasty
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable or uncountablemedical
Surgery performed to change the size or shape of the breasts, either to enlarge, reduce or reconstruct them.
Grammar: Can be used as a general term or with a: she had a mammoplasty.
Patterns
- mammoplasty for something
- undergo mammoplasty
She had a mammoplasty to reduce back pain.
Mammoplasty can be done for medical or cosmetic reasons.
The surgeon explained the risks of mammoplasty.
Word forms
| plural | mammoplasties |
|---|
Common combinations
- undergo mammoplasty
- She decided to undergo mammoplasty after much thought.
- reduction mammoplasty
- Reduction mammoplasty relieved her neck pain.
- augmentation mammoplasty
- Augmentation mammoplasty is a common cosmetic procedure.
- recover from mammoplasty
- It took her six weeks to recover from mammoplasty.
- mammoplasty surgeon
- A mammoplasty surgeon must be fully qualified.
Synonyms and how they differ
- breast surgery
- Breast surgery is the plain phrase and may include cancer surgery, while mammoplasty means only shaping or resizing.
- mammaplasty
- Mammaplasty is an alternative spelling with the same meaning.
- breast reconstruction
- Breast reconstruction rebuilds the breast after illness, which is one kind of mammoplasty.
Word family
- mammary adjective
- relating to the breast
- plasty noun
- a suffix for surgical reshaping
- rhinoplasty noun
- nose surgery, a similar -plasty word
- mammogram noun
- an X-ray picture of the breast
Commonly confused: mammoplasty or mammogram? mammoplasty or mastectomy?
mammoplasty vs mammogram
A mammogram is a medical image used to check for illness, while mammoplasty is surgery that changes the breast.
mammoplasty vs mastectomy
A mastectomy removes breast tissue, usually for cancer, while mammoplasty reshapes it.
Practice
Which term names surgery to change the shape or size of the breasts?
Choose one answer.
Mammoplasty is the surgery to reshape breasts. A mammogram and mammography are imaging, and a mastectomy removes tissue.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mammoplasty”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.