Definitions

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

  • noun Obstruction or occlusion of a blood vessel by an embolus.
  • noun An embolus.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Intercalation; the insertion of days, months, or years in an account of time.
  • noun Intercalated time.
  • noun In pathology, the obstruction of a vessel by a clot of fibrin or other substance abnormally present and brought into the current of the circulating medium from some more or less distant locality. Embolism commonly causes paralysis in the brain, with more or less of an apoplectic shock.
  • noun In liturgics, a prayer for deliverance from evil, inserted in almost all liturgies after the Lord's Prayer, as an expansion of or addition to its closing petition, whence the name. Also embolismus.
  • noun Also embolia.

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

  • noun Intercalation; the insertion of days, months, or years, in an account of time, to produce regularity.
  • noun Intercalated time.
  • noun (Med.) The occlusion of a blood vessel by an embolus. Embolism in the brain often produces sudden unconsciousness and paralysis.

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

  • noun pathology An obstruction or occlusion of an artery by an embolus, that is by a blood clot, air bubble or other matter that has been transported by the blood stream.
  • noun The insertion or intercalation of days into the calendar in order to correct the error arising from the difference between the civil year and the solar year.

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

  • noun an insertion into a calendar
  • noun occlusion of a blood vessel by an embolus (a loose clot or air bubble or other particle)

Etymologies

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

[Middle English embolisme, insertion of one or more days in a calendar, from Late Latin embolismus, from Greek embolismos, from emballein, to insert; see emblem.]

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Examples

  • And so they said, when you have that, you can have a complication known as a pulmonary embolism, which is where a blood clot goes to the lungs and so the lungs can't work any more.

    CNN Transcript Dec 2, 2009 2009

  • Medical experts say the incidence of DVT followed by pulmonary embolism, which is fatal about 30% of the time, is increasing in the hospital.

    In the Hospital, Facing a Scourge of Killer Clots 2009

  • And out of that, 300,000 will die from a the pulmonary embolism, which is essentially the clot traveling to the lungs.

    CNN Transcript Mar 8, 2007 2007

  • Preventing these blood clots can prevent a pulmonary embolism, which is a sudden, potentially fatal, blockage in a lung artery that can occur if the blood clot breaks free and travels through the bloodstream to the lungs.

    RedOrbit News - Technology 2010

  • A leading study of "near misses" -- where pregnant women nearly die -- found that the increasing c-section rate is associated with an increase in severe complications including kidney failure and respiratory distress syndrome, and partially associated with an increase in shock and in pulmonary embolism, which is the leading cause of maternal death in the United States.

    Politics Nan Strauss 2010

  • A leading study of "near misses" -- where pregnant women nearly die -- found that the increasing c-section rate is associated with an increase in severe complications including kidney failure and respiratory distress syndrome, and partially associated with an increase in shock and in pulmonary embolism, which is the leading cause of maternal death in the United States.

    Politics Nan Strauss 2010

  • According to Dr. Kenneth Leeper, director of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Emory, tests discovered that Lowery had sustained a pulmonary embolism, which is a blood clot in his lung.

    WSBTV.com - Local News 2010

  • A pulmonary embolism occurs when one or more arteries in the lungs become blocked.

    EurekAlert! - Breaking News 2009

  • The term "embolism" designates an obstruction caused by any body detached and transported from the interior of the heart or of some vessel.

    Special Report on Diseases of the Horse Charles B. Michener 1877

  • Deadly conditions such as embolism or stroke can result.

    eHow - Health How To's 2010

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