Definitions

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

  • noun An abnormal new growth of tissue in animals or plants; a tumor.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A new growth or true tumor; a morbid growth more or less distinct histologically from the tissue in which it occurs.

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

  • noun (Physiol. & Med.) A new formation or tissue, the product of morbid action.

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

  • noun pathology, oncology An abnormal new growth of disorganized tissue in animals or plants.

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

  • noun an abnormal new mass of tissue that serves no purpose

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From neo- + Ancient Greek πλάσμα (plasma, "formation").

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Examples

  • The term neoplasm is generally used for any abnormal growth.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • You might see somebody who was diagnosed with a breast neoplasm—a lump on the breast—and the treatment code was a circumcision.

    May the Best Algorithm Win… Jennifer Valentino-DeVries 2011

  • According to the CDC, the "age-adjusted death rate decreased significantly for 10 of the 15 leading causes of death," including heart disease, malignant neoplasm cancer, various chronic diseases of the liver or respiratory system, influenza and pneumonia.

    The March of Health Progress 2011

  • This seems to be a huge discrepancy in accuracy, suggesting a battery with only half the advertised road range -- ergo, a brazen lie, a metastatic neoplasm right at the heart and soul of the machine!

    Gene and the Machine: The shocking truth about the electric Volt Gene Weingarten 2011

  • “The neoplasm grows rapidly, infiltrates, metastasizes, and remains true to type.”

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • He proposed, Early in the neoplastic process one colonic cell appears to outgrow its companions to form a small, benign neoplasm.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • The neoplasm of my pleonasms gets my jelly in a righteous tart!

    Excerpt from Urdoxa 2.0 2010

  • “The neoplasm grows rapidly, infiltrates, metastasizes, and remains true to type.”

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • He proposed, Early in the neoplastic process one colonic cell appears to outgrow its companions to form a small, benign neoplasm.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • “The neoplasm grows rapidly, infiltrates, metastasizes, and remains true to type.”

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

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