Meaning & use
rheumatoid arthritis
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountablemedical
A long-term disease in which the body's immune system attacks the joints, causing pain, swelling and stiffness, often in the hands and feet.
Grammar: Uncountable disease name: she has rheumatoid arthritis, not a rheumatoid arthritis.
Patterns
- diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis
- suffer from rheumatoid arthritis
Her grandmother has lived with rheumatoid arthritis for more than twenty years.
Unlike osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis happens when the immune system attacks the joints.
Early treatment of rheumatoid arthritis can slow the damage to the joints.
Common combinations
- diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis
- He was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of thirty.
- suffer from rheumatoid arthritis
- Millions of people suffer from rheumatoid arthritis worldwide.
- treat rheumatoid arthritis
- Doctors use several kinds of drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
- early rheumatoid arthritis
- Morning stiffness is a sign of early rheumatoid arthritis.
- severe rheumatoid arthritis
- Severe rheumatoid arthritis can make it hard to hold a pen.
- rheumatoid arthritis flare
- Stress can trigger a rheumatoid arthritis flare.
Synonyms and how they differ
- RA
- RA is the common abbreviation used by doctors and patients, so it is quicker but less clear to general readers.
- inflammatory arthritis
- Inflammatory arthritis is a wider group of joint diseases, of which rheumatoid arthritis is the best known.
- arthritis
- Arthritis is the general word for joint inflammation of any kind, so it does not tell you the immune system is involved.
Word family
- arthritis noun
- inflammation of the joints
- arthritic adjective
- affected by or related to arthritis
- rheumatology noun
- the medical study of joint and immune diseases
- rheumatologist noun
- a doctor who treats joint and immune diseases
- rheumatic adjective
- relating to painful joint conditions
Commonly confused: rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis?
rheumatoid arthritis vs osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis comes mainly from wear and tear on joints with age, while rheumatoid arthritis comes from the immune system attacking them.
Practice
Unlike osteoarthritis, which comes mainly from wear and tear, ___ happens when the immune system attacks the joints.
Choose one answer.
Rheumatoid arthritis is an immune-system disease of the joints. Gout comes from uric acid crystals, osteoporosis weakens bones and tendonitis inflames tendons.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rheumatoid arthritis”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.