Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A sudden, involuntary contraction of a muscle or group of muscles.
- n. A sudden burst of energy, activity, or emotion.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Excessive muscular contraction. When this is persistent, it is called tonic spasm; when it consists of alternating contractions and relaxations, it is called
clonic spasm . A spasm of one side of the body is called hemispasm; a spasm of some particular part, as one arm, or one side of the face, is called a monospasm. - n. In general, any sudden transitory movement of a convulsive character, voluntary or involuntary; an abnormally energetic action or phase of feeling; a wrenching strain or effort: as, a spasm of industry, of grief, of fright, etc.; a spasm of pain or of coughing.
Wiktionary
- n. A sudden, involuntary contraction of a muscle, a group of muscles, or a hollow organ.
- n. A violent, excruciating seizure of pain.
- n. A sudden and temporary burst of energy, activity, or emotion.
- v. To produce and undergo a spasm.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Med.) An involuntary and unnatural contraction of one or more muscles or muscular fibers.
- n. A sudden, violent, and temporary effort or emotion.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a painful and involuntary muscular contraction
- n. (pathology) sudden constriction of a hollow organ (as a blood vessel)
Etymologies
- From Old French spasme, from Latin spasmus, from Ancient Greek σπασμός (spasmos, "spasm, convulsion"). Compare span. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English spasme, from Old French, from Latin spasmus, from Greek spasmos, from spān, to pull. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Muscles in spasm, cut off from ligaments and blood straining with effort to keep the heart working.”
“Last night, however, my back in spasm from too much sitting, my wrists tingling and aching from too much typing, my husband (legitimately) annoyed because I was in a foul mood, my older son nearly in tears because his homework was to look through our trash and act like an archeologist but there is no good trash!,”
The Work of Poetry : Rachel Zucker : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
“If Ms Spence had been black that would surely have left the home office twitching in spasm. on September 19, 2007 at 8: 04 am | Reply dickiebo”
“When the patient came into the clinic the next day," recalls physical therapist Brian Hagen, facility director at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center for Sports Medicine, "he was in very significant pain from acute lower back muscle spasm, which is the body's way of 'splinting' itself to prevent further damage.”
“The affected limbs exhibit muscular rigidity or spasm, which is aggravated on movement but disappears under an anæsthetic; the reflexes are exaggerated, and sometimes there are perverted involuntary movements (_athetosis_).”
Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition.
“Devine called the spasm "minor" and said he believes it will calm down by today's doubleheader.”
“She calls the decline in northward migration a "spasm" - not a lasting reality.”
“I saw him expire with an anguish, unaccountable even to myself, the spasm was as the wrenching of some limb in agonizing torture, but it was brief as it was intolerable.”
“Miss Sally took another pinch, and putting her head on one side, looked at her questioner, with a curious kind of spasm about her mouth, but with”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spasm’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Ends in "-sm" but isn't an "ism"
pleonasm, prism, schism, orgasm, spasm, iconoclasm, chasm, enthusiasm, phantasm, ectoplasm, cytoplasm, aneurysm and 55 more...
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sort of sexy
pressure, press, urgency, squeezing, influence, compel, push, tease, thrust, full, drive, urge on and 99 more...
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summerwing's Words
proctosigmoidoscopy, horrendous, cichlid, implode, nostalgic, firmament, elucidate, quintet, rhombus, mack, pithy, rambunctious and 304 more...
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Real words that I love
Words that make me happy in my pants AND have a place in the dictionary.
enervate, efficacious, basilisk, minotaur, elfin, elephantine, schadenfreude, enigma, emasculate, acidic, appalling, ridiculous and 102 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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kingofbash's Words
bash, poleaxed, salacious, libertine, charlatan, aplomb, fortuitous, finagle, apoplectic, debutante, carte blanche, aardvark and 472 more...
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Twitchy
The (not always so) smoovements; scattered, oscillating, jerky, and unpredictable.
palpitation, scravel, jactitate, pounce, wobble, vibrate, undulate, didder, effleurage, flail, ague, swerve and 169 more...
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Favorite Five-Letter Words
Just what it sounds like. My favorites. Five letters.
ennui, barfy, samba, schwa, beefy, chunk, queef, spasm, skulk, bowel, elbow, fruit and 235 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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ginnylev's Words
neuroplasticity, repudiate, scintilla, ruminate, tautology, ombudsman, exigent, filibuster, grace, ambidextrous, amends, disclosure and 623 more...
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persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
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words
words
spartan, cram, quill, furor, rampart, enervate, placate, agitate, galvanize, spur, pricker, infuriate and 273 more...
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TT2 Lesson 15
basement, filing cabinet, lift, laid up, spasm, muscle, develop, attic, clean out, emergency, emergency room, rush and 20 more...
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Bodily Functions & pertaining to the ...
functions of the body, diseases in the body, body parts. etc.
erectile, spasm, twitch, paroxysm, seizure, humoralism, frothing, incisor, appendage, limb, twinge, saliva and 19 more...
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asms
ectoplasm, spasm, phantasm, orgasm, cytoplasm, sarcasm, overenthusiasm, chasm, iconoclasm, pleonasm
Tweets
Looking for tweets for spasm.
dailyword This would happen to House's bad leg at times. Jul 9, 2012