asymptomatic

English

WOTD – 22 August 2024

Etymology

PIE word
*ḱóm

The adjective is derived from a- (prefix meaning ‘not’) +‎ symptomatic. The noun is derived from the adjective.^[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌeɪsɪm(p)təˈmætɪk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌeɪˌsɪm(p)təˈmætɪk/, [-ɾɪk]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ætɪk
• Hyphenation: asym‧ptom‧at‧ic

Adjective

asymptomatic (not comparable)

1. (medicine) Not exhibiting any symptoms of disease, as for example in a case which is subclinical (“without signs detectable by physical examination or laboratory test”).

   Synonyms: nonsymptomatic, symptomless; subpatent (epidemiology)

   Antonym: symptomatic

   Coordinate terms: oligosymptomatic, paucisymptomatic, presymptomatic

Derived terms

• asymptomatical
• asymptomatically
• asymptomaticity
• neuroasymptomatic

Translations

not exhibiting any symptoms of disease

Arabic: بِدُون أَعْرَاض (bidūn ʔaʕrāḍ), بِلَا أَعْرَاض (bilā ʔaʕrāḍ) Basque: asintomatiko Bengali: উপসর্গহীন (upośorgohin) Bulgarian: асимптомично (asimptomično) Catalan: asimptomàtic Chinese: Mandarin: 無症狀 / 无症状 (wú zhèngzhuàng), 隱性 / 隐性 (zh) (yǐnxìng) Czech: asymptomatický (cs), bezpříznakový (cs) Dagbani: asymptomatic Danish: asymptomatisk Dutch: asymptomatisch (nl) Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Finnish: oireeton (fi) French: asymptomatique (fr) Galician: please add this translation if you can German: symptomfrei (de) Hebrew: אסימפטומטי Hindi: अलक्षणी (alakṣaṇī) Hungarian: aszimptomatikus, tünetmentes (hu) Indonesian: asimtomatik Interlingua: asymptomatic Italian: asintomatico (it) Japanese: please add this translation if you can Korean: 무증상(無症狀) (mujeungsang) Lithuanian: besimptomis Norwegian: Bokmål: asymptomatisk (no) Nynorsk: asymptomatisk Persian: بدون علامت Polish: bezobjawowy (pl) Portuguese: assintomático (pt) Romanian: asimptomatic (ro) Russian: бессимпто́мный (ru) (bessimptómnyj) Spanish: asintomático (es) Swedish: asymtomatisk (sv), symptomfri (sv), symtomfri (sv) Thai: ไร้อาการ Turkish: asemptomatik, semptomsuz Urdu: غیر علامتی Vietnamese: không có triệu chứng

Noun

asymptomatic (plural asymptomatics) (medicine)

1. A person or an animal that exhibits no symptoms of disease.

   Antonym: symptomatic

   After a 10-day observation period, group 1 was divided into subgroup 1A (symptomatics) and subgroup 1B (asymptomatics).

   • 2015 July 8, Rachel Jenkins [et al.], “Prevalence of Malaria Parasites in Adults and Its Determinants in Malaria Endemic Area of Kisumu County, Kenya”, in Malaria Journal, volume 14, London: BioMed Central, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, article 263, page 5, column 2:

     [S]uch a high adult prevalence of parasites emphasises the relevance of the adult malaria parasite reservoir on the transmission of disease in both children and adults and it supports the need for further consideration and research evaluation of treatment of asymptomatics, including approaches such as intermittent screening and treatment (IST) as part of an integrated malaria control programme, if malaria elimination is to be achieved.

2. Preceded by the: people or animals that exhibit no symptoms of disease regarded collectively.

   At the end of the observation period, those who are still symptomatic require second-line treatment, whereas the asymptomatic are discharged.

Translations

person or animal that exhibits no symptoms of disease; people or animals that exhibit no symptoms of disease regarded collectively

Finnish: oireeton (fi) Galician: please add this translation if you can

References

1. “asymptomatic, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2024; “asymptomatic, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• asymptomatic on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Interlingua

Adjective

asymptomatic (not comparable)

1. asymptomatic