Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An invasive malignant tumor derived from epithelial tissue that tends to metastasize to other areas of the body.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany, a disease of trees characterized by the separation of the bark and the exudation of an acrid sap.
  • noun A tumor which grows more or less rapidly, tends to break down and ulcerate in its later stages, propagates itself in neighboring or more distant parts, and after excision very frequently recurs; a cancer, in the stricter sense of that word.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A form of malignant cancer arising from epithelial tissue. The term was earlier applied to all forms of cancer, or to certain non-malignant forms. It is contrasted with sarcoma, a malignant form of cancer arising from connective tissue. See cancer.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun oncology An invasive malignant tumor derived from epithelial tissue that tends to metastasize to other areas of the body.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any malignant tumor derived from epithelial tissue; one of the four major types of cancer

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin, cancerous ulcer, from Greek karkinōma, from karkinos, cancer; see kar- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin carcĭnōma ("a cancerous ulcer") , from Ancient Greek καρκίνωμα, from καρκίνος. Compare cancer.

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