Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A swelling or enlarging.
- n. A swollen condition.
- n. A swollen part or organ.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state of growing tumid; tumefaction.
- n. A swelling, tumid part, or tumor; an intumescence.
Wiktionary
- n. A swelling due to the presence of fluid.
- n. A swollen bodily organ; used especially of erectile tissue.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of becoming tumid; the state of being swollen; intumescence; -- applied especially to the state of swelling of the vascular tissue in the male and female sex organs when they have been stimulated to readiness for sexual intercourse.
WordNet 3.0
- n. tumidity resulting from the presence of blood or other fluid in the tissues
Examples
“The Liberals let the budget pass, which left the Harper government in office but in a state of political semi-tumescence, which is where it's been since those first days.”
“This description clearly brings out the fundamentally vascular character of the process I have termed "tumescence"; it must be added, however, that in man the nervous elements in the process tend to become more conspicuous, and more or less obliterate these primitive limitations of sexual desire.”
“Of course, because the taxpayer has no choice but to cough up, this gangrenous tumescence keeps bulging as the services provided become more emaciated and anaemic.”
“Viagra and other ED medications help increase male tumescence and enhance performance issues.”
Think Progress » Kansas lawmaker compares rape to auto theft.
“And so, all you haters suck my crotchal tumescence.”
“Actually, he joked that the mere mention of the word "preemptive" would initiate tumescence.”
The Huffington Post: Ariel Gonzalez: Christopher Hitchens: A Narcissistic Manchild
“When, for the first time in his life Jake can't get an erection, Maggie wastes no time taunting the Viagra salesman back to a truly tantalizing state of tumescence and turgidity.”
The Huffington Post: George Heymont: What's Love Got To Do With It? (VIDEOS)
“And that The New York Times, despite its international prestige and history of excellence, its daily pastiche of almost all the human experiences fit to print is nothing but a biased, liberal bludgeon Judith MIller's contribution to neo-con tumescence notwithstanding?”
“(Actually, he joked that the mere mention of the word "preemptive" would initiate tumescence.)”
The Huffington Post: Ariel Gonzalez: Christopher Hitchens: A Narcissistic Manchild
“Having come to this newfound sense of personal pride seemed as disingenuous as it did tardy, formed almost overnight with a furious tumescence that eclipsed his better judgement.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tumescence’.
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Palynology
List of terms used in the study and classification of pollen and spores - both fossil and modern.
tetrad, abporal, ectoaperture, lacuna, grain, spore, lophate, acalymmate, monad, polyad, hexad, calymmate and 513 more...
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vmarinelli's Words
canard, gumption, inexorable, insouciance, inviolable, mordant, euphonious, sawbuck, carpe diem, pay dirt, adipocere, profligate and 496 more...
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good words
words that are mostly fun to say or just lovely
undulate, voluptuous, whimsy, parse, dank, cerulean, peen, traipsing, listless, coup de grace, reconnoiter, mercurial and 499 more...
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word list!!!!
lagniappe
syzygy, bloviate, lagniappe, laconic, condign, umbrage, susurrus, thaumaturgy, capacious, capitulate, glower, repast and 170 more...
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Ulysses
This is a list of the more difficult English words found in James Joyce's Ulysses. It will continually be updated as I read along. The list is in reverse chronological order, meaning that the last ...
equine, untonsured, corpuscle, prelate, parapet, dactyl, jejune, lancet, jalap, barbican, valise, dewsilky and 377 more...
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wakcy's Words
apocalypse, interlude, drome, absolution, atrocity, ruse, pristine, mason, reparable, deteriorate, pyramid, hipster and 283 more...
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SCRUBJAYS IDIOM
EXTRAPOLATE, altruistic, misanthropic, predicate, pejoritive, disparaging, bucolic, sylvan, veracity, autodidact, jejune, erudite and 110 more...
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televisionarie's list
Way too pretentious.
limerance, scansion, legerity, tumescence, peripatetic, milieu, sangfroid, solipsistic, apanthropy
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work these into conversation
Challenge!
legerdemain, polysemic, rupestrian, callipygian, oscitancy, numen, lucubration, asperity, amalgam, apposite, wastrel, eleemosynary and 208 more...
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Euphemisms
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thricedotted's Words
schadenfreude, vanquish, calumny, obsequious, rhapsody, expostulate, promontory, bordello, quintessence, catharsis, recapitulation, myriad and 937 more...
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danceswithtrout's Words
crepuscular, étouffée, fandango, flimflam, avuncular, deleterious, pernicious, schlep, debauch, unguent, ablution, grit and 25 more...
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Random Words I Like
deliquescent, doppelganger, caricature, simulacrum, anhedonia, sesquipedalian, autotroph, tmesis, comminution, foofaraw, tabellion, truthiness and 52 more...
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Lexiphanicism for Gormandizers of Vocabulary
Yes, I'm a word-whore.
Lex`i*phan"i*cism\ (-i^*si^z'm), n. The use of pretentious words, language, or style.Lexiphanicism, Diaphanous, recalcitrant, iconoclast, concatenate, pulchritudinous, mammatocumulus, deliquescence, tumescence, turgid, crwth, necronomicon and 18 more...
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April 2010
ructus, eructation, emesis, merycism, cachexia, copremesis, fistula, hydrocephalus, glottis, afferent, efferent, bleb and 27 more...
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"Interesting" Words
These are words I like, but I realized do not belong on my poetry list. This is probably because they are mostly about sex.
unclassy, frisky, comely, buxom, tumescence, ravish, octodont, feisty, sleaze, creeper, pliant, classy and 1 more...
"Who says you don't learn anything from television. This week on The X-Files we learned the fancy shmancy got-it-past-the-censors way to say 'death by a huge hard-on': 'extreme priapic condition'
or 'chronic morbid tumescence.'"
Mar 21, 2008