Amenorrhoea

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˌmɛnəˈɹiːə/

Definitions

1. The condition in which menstruation is absent from a woman's monthly cycle
2. A state characterized by the lack of menstrual periods over a certain time frame
3. The medical condition involving the cessation or failure of monthly menstrual bleeding

Etymology: Amenorrhoea is a medical coinage built from Ancient Greek pieces, not a word the Greeks themselves used. Its parts are "a-", meaning "not", "mēn", meaning "month", and "-rrhoia", meaning "flowing", so the literal sense is "non-flowing of the monthly", describing the absence of menstrual periods. The combining forms were assembled in New Latin, the scholarly Latin of early modern science and medicine, which is how physicians in that tradition typically built names for conditions. The word's construction is transparent once the pieces are known. The "-rrhoea" element appears in many other medical terms, such as "diarrhoea" (a flowing through) and "gonorrhoea", so anyone who recognises that ending can read the rest of the compound at a glance. The "meno-" in the surface analysis is the same "month" root that gives English "menstruation" and "menopause".

Synonyms: absence of menstruation