Virtuous English AcademyMedicine & Body — C1 English Vocabulary
This C1 vocabulary list gathers 60 advanced English words about medicine & body — clinical language and the human body. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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ailing/ˈeɪ.lɪŋ/
Ill or in poor health.
“He has been ailing for years.”
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malady/ˈmæl.ə.di/
An illness or disease.
“It is a mysterious malady.”
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affliction/əˈflɪk.ʃən/
Something that causes suffering or pain.
“Arthritis is a common affliction.”
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debilitating/dɪˈbɪl.ɪ.teɪ.tɪŋ/
Making someone very weak.
“It is a debilitating disease.”
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incurable/ɪnˈkjʊə.rə.bəl/
Not able to be cured.
“The illness is incurable.”
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benign/bɪˈnaɪn/
Not harmful, said of a growth.
“The tumour was benign.”
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malignant/məˈlɪɡ.nənt/
Harmful and likely to spread, said of a tumour.
“The growth turned malignant.”
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dormant/ˈdɔː.mənt/
Inactive for a time but able to return.
“The virus stays dormant for years.”
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contagion/kənˈteɪ.dʒən/
The spreading of disease by contact.
“They feared contagion.”
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communicable/kəˈmjuː.nɪ.kə.bəl/
Able to be passed from person to person.
“It is a communicable disease.”
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prognosis/prɒɡˈnəʊ.sɪs/
A doctor's opinion on how an illness will develop.
“The prognosis is good.”
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relapse/rɪˈlæps/
A return of illness after improvement.
“She had a sudden relapse.”
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convalescence/ˌkɒn.vəˈles.əns/
The period of recovery after illness.
“Convalescence took months.”
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symptomatic/ˌsɪmp.təˈmæt.ɪk/
Showing the signs of a disease.
“Treatment is purely symptomatic.”
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respiratory/rɪˈspɪr.ə.tər.i/
Relating to breathing.
“He has a respiratory illness.”
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cardiovascular/ˌkɑː.di.əʊˈvæs.kjə.lə/
Relating to the heart and blood vessels.
“Exercise aids cardiovascular health.”
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neurological/ˌnjʊə.rəˈlɒdʒ.ɪ.kəl/
Relating to the nerves and brain.
“It is a neurological disorder.”
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degenerative/dɪˈdʒen.ər.ə.tɪv/
Getting worse over time, said of illness.
“It is a degenerative condition.”
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congenital/kənˈdʒen.ɪ.təl/
Present from birth.
“It is a congenital defect.”
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immunisation/ˌɪm.jə.naɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
Protection against disease using a vaccine.
“Immunisation saves lives.”
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inoculation/ɪˌnɒk.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/
The giving of a vaccine.
“He had an inoculation before travelling.”
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antidote/ˈæn.tɪ.dəʊt/
A medicine that acts against a poison.
“There is no known antidote.”
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analgesic/ˌæn.əlˈdʒiː.zɪk/
A medicine that relieves pain.
“She took an analgesic.”
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sedative/ˈsed.ə.tɪv/
A drug that makes you calm or sleepy.
“The doctor gave him a sedative.”
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amputate/ˈæm.pjə.teɪt/
To cut off part of the body by surgery.
“Surgeons had to amputate the leg.”
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anaemia/əˈniː.mi.ə/
A condition of having too few red blood cells.
“She suffers from anaemia.”
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arthritis/ɑːˈθraɪ.tɪs/
A painful swelling of the joints.
“Arthritis stiffened his joints.”
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dementia/dɪˈmen.ʃə/
A disease causing loss of memory and thinking.
“Her mother has dementia.”
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epilepsy/ˈep.ɪ.lep.si/
A condition causing fits or seizures.
“He was diagnosed with epilepsy.”
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paralysis/pəˈræl.ə.sɪs/
The loss of the ability to move.
“The stroke caused paralysis.”
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concussion/kənˈkʌʃ.ən/
A brain injury from a blow to the head.
“He suffered a concussion.”
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haemorrhage/ˈhem.ər.ɪdʒ/
A serious loss of blood.
“She had a brain haemorrhage.”
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cardiac/ˈkɑː.di.æk/
Relating to the heart.
“He went into cardiac arrest.”
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anatomy/əˈnæt.ə.mi/
The study of the body's structure.
“Students learn human anatomy.”
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physiology/ˌfɪz.iˈɒl.ə.dʒi/
The study of how the body works.
“He studies physiology.”
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metabolic/ˌmet.əˈbɒl.ɪk/
Relating to the body's chemical processes.
“It is a metabolic disorder.”
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hormone/ˈhɔː.məʊn/
A chemical made by the body that controls functions.
“The hormone controls growth.”
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ligament/ˈlɪɡ.ə.mənt/
A band of tissue joining bones together.
“He tore a ligament.”
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tendon/ˈten.dən/
A cord joining muscle to bone.
“She strained a tendon.”
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cartilage/ˈkɑː.tɪ.lɪdʒ/
The firm, flexible tissue in joints.
“The cartilage was damaged.”
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abdomen/ˈæb.də.mən/
The part of the body containing the stomach.
“He felt pain in his abdomen.”
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spine/spaɪn/
The row of bones down the back.
“The injury damaged her spine.”
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cranium/ˈkreɪ.ni.əm/
The bone that forms the skull.
“The cranium protects the brain.”
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circulatory/ˈsɜː.kjə.lə.tər.i/
Relating to the flow of blood in the body.
“It is a circulatory problem.”
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infectious/ɪnˈfek.ʃəs/
Able to be passed on, said of disease.
“It is a highly infectious disease.”
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virulent/ˈvɪr.ʊ.lənt/
Extremely harmful, said of a disease.
“A virulent strain emerged.”
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intravenous/ˌɪn.trəˈviː.nəs/
Given into a vein.
“She was given intravenous fluids.”
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biopsy/ˈbaɪ.ɒp.si/
The taking of tissue to test for disease.
“The biopsy was clear.”
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screening/ˈskriː.nɪŋ/
Testing people to find disease early.
“Early screening saves lives.”
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epidemiology/ˌep.ɪ.diː.miˈɒl.ə.dʒi/
The study of how diseases spread.
“She specialises in epidemiology.”
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quarantine/ˈkwɒr.ən.tiːn/
A period of isolation to stop disease spreading.
“Travellers face quarantine.”
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sterile/ˈster.aɪl/
Completely free from germs.
“Keep the instruments sterile.”
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dehydration/ˌdiː.haɪˈdreɪ.ʃən/
A harmful lack of water in the body.
“Dehydration is dangerous.”
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nausea/ˈnɔː.zi.ə/
A feeling of wanting to vomit.
“She felt sudden nausea.”
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fatigue/fəˈtiːɡ/
Extreme tiredness.
“Chronic fatigue wore him down.”
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palliative/ˈpæl.i.ə.tɪv/
Easing pain without curing the illness.
“He moved to palliative care.”
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resuscitate/rɪˈsʌs.ɪ.teɪt/
To bring an unconscious person back to life.
“Medics tried to resuscitate him.”
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defibrillator/diːˈfɪb.rɪ.leɪ.tə/
A device that restarts a stopped heart.
“A defibrillator restarted his heart.”
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prosthetic/prɒsˈθet.ɪk/
An artificial part replacing a body part.
“He was fitted with a prosthetic leg.”
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ointment/ˈɔɪnt.mənt/
A soft cream rubbed on the skin to heal it.
“Rub the ointment on the rash.”
Using medicine & body words in English
Clinical vocabulary at C1 divides sharply between the words a doctor uses and the words a novelist uses. Malady and affliction belong to literature; prognosis and benign belong to a consultation. The pair worth fixing first is benign and malignant, and the second is diagnosis against prognosis, which look alike and answer different questions.
What to watch out for
Benign and malignant
A benign growth does not invade surrounding tissue or spread; a malignant one does, and is cancerous. The words carry the same contrast outside medicine — a benign influence, malignant gossip — where benign means harmless or kindly. Note that benign is pronounced with a silent g, while the g is sounded in malignant and in benignant.
Diagnosis names it; prognosis predicts it
A diagnosis identifies what the condition is; a prognosis forecasts how it will develop. Both take the Greek plural in -oses: diagnoses, prognoses. The verbs differ in availability — diagnose is an ordinary verb, and note the pattern diagnosed with, while there is no everyday verb from prognosis.
Literary register: malady, affliction, convalescence
Malady and affliction are old-fashioned or literary words for illness, and a doctor would not use either. Ailing similarly belongs to writing, and it extends figuratively to institutions: the ailing steel industry. Convalescence is the period of recovery after illness and is uncountable. Dormant means present but inactive, as a virus can be for years.
Words learners mix up
This page is where anatomical precision starts to matter. Three clusters carry most of it: which body system an adjective refers to, which connective tissue you actually mean, and what a given drug is for.
The system adjectives
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| respiratory | To do with breathing — lungs and airways. Stressed res-PIR-a-tory in British English. | A respiratory infection that cleared in a week. |
| cardiovascular | Heart and blood vessels together. The compound is the point: cardiac alone is the heart only. | Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death. |
| circulatory | The movement of blood around the body. Overlaps with cardiovascular but emphasises flow rather than the organs. | A circulatory problem in the lower leg. |
| neurological | To do with the nervous system and the brain. The specialist is a neurologist. | She was referred for a neurological assessment. |
| metabolic | To do with the chemical processes that keep the body running. Includes diabetes and thyroid conditions. | A rare metabolic disorder. |
These adjectives are how medical English compresses a whole clause: a cardiovascular event replaces something that happened to the heart or blood vessels. That compression is exactly what makes medical prose hard to read and worth practising.
Three connective tissues, constantly confused
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| ligament | Connects bone to bone and stabilises a joint. This is what you tear in a knee injury. | He ruptured a ligament in his right knee. |
| tendon | Connects muscle to bone and transmits the pull. The Achilles is the largest. | Inflammation of the tendon in the shoulder. |
| cartilage | Firm, smooth tissue cushioning the ends of bones. Uncountable, and it does not connect anything. | The cartilage in the joint had worn away. |
The memory hook is the middle letters: ligament ties bone to bone like a ligature; a tendon takes the tension from a muscle. Cartilage is the odd one out because it is padding rather than a connector, and unlike the other two it is uncountable.
What is the drug actually for?
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| analgesic | Relieves pain without causing unconsciousness. The technical word; the everyday one is painkiller. | A mild analgesic was enough. |
| sedative | Calms or induces sleep. Acts on alertness rather than on pain. | He was given a sedative before the scan. |
| antidote | Counteracts a specific poison. Takes to, and it also works figuratively: an antidote to cynicism. | There is no known antidote to the venom. |
| palliative | Relieves symptoms without treating the cause. In care of the dying it names a whole approach. | The treatment is palliative rather than curative. |
| ointment | Not a drug class at all but a form — a greasy preparation applied to the skin. | An antiseptic ointment for the burn. |
Palliative is the one to handle with care, because in palliative care it signals that cure is no longer the goal. Using it loosely to mean a partial fix is correct in general English — a palliative measure — but jarring near a medical context.
Collocations that sound natural
Clinical English is highly formulaic, and several of these nouns have escaped into figurative use with a different verb. Both patterns are worth having.
relapse
suffer a relapserelapse intoa relapse occurredrelapse rates
Noun and verb, with the stress differing: the noun is RE-lapse, the verb re-LAPSE. Figuratively it takes into: relapsed into old habits.
haemorrhage
a massive haemorrhageinternal haemorrhagehaemorrhage moneya brain haemorrhage
Note the British ae. As a verb it has a vivid figurative life in business writing: the company was haemorrhaging cash.
screening
a screening programmecancer screeningroutine screeningscreening for
Uncountable in this sense, and it means testing a whole population who show no symptoms — distinct from diagnostic testing.
quarantine
in quarantineimpose quarantinea quarantine periodplaced under quarantine
Uncountable and takes no article after in. From the Italian for forty, the days ships waited at Venice.
biopsy
take a biopsyperform a biopsythe biopsy revealeda biopsy came back clear
Countable. The verb is take or perform — never make or do in clinical writing.
fatigue
chronic fatigueextreme fatiguemetal fatiguecombat fatigue
Uncountable, and it means exhaustion beyond ordinary tiredness. Also a precise engineering term: metal fatigue is weakening under repeated stress.
Formal, neutral or informal?
The choice on this page is nearly always between the technical term and the everyday one, and picking the technical word in ordinary conversation sounds as odd as picking the everyday one in a case note.
- haemorrhage / anaemiaBritish spellingsBritish English keeps the ae digraph that American English drops, writing hemorrhage and anemia. The same pattern runs through paediatric, anaesthetic and oedema.
- cranium / abdomenTechnical twinsThe everyday words are skull and stomach or belly. Note that abdomen is anatomically the whole region, while stomach is strictly one organ inside it — a distinction ordinary speech ignores entirely.
- virulentTechnical + figurativeOf a pathogen, extremely severe and fast-spreading. Figuratively it means bitterly hostile: virulent criticism. Do not confuse with viral, which merely means caused by a virus.
- dormantNeutral · precisePresent but inactive, and capable of becoming active again — used of infections, volcanoes and accounts alike. Not a synonym for cured or gone.
- communicable / contagionFormal · public healthCommunicable disease is the official category in public-health writing. Contagion is the older, more literary noun for the spread of disease, and it now appears most often as a metaphor in finance: financial contagion.
- convalescenceLiterary · datedThe period of recovering strength after illness. It belongs to nineteenth-century novels and to formal writing; a hospital today would say recovery.
- resuscitateTechnicalTo revive someone whose breathing or heartbeat has stopped. The related noun in hospital paperwork is the instruction do not resuscitate. Figuratively it means reviving anything failing: resuscitate the negotiations.
- prostheticAdjective becoming a nounStrictly an adjective — a prosthetic limb — with the noun being a prosthesis, plural prostheses. Prosthetics as a plural noun is now common and widely accepted.
Sentences to try
Four frames from medical and literary registers. Ask which setting each belongs to.
- The biopsy confirmed that the growth was benign.
- The prognosis is considerably better than it was a decade ago.
- The virus can remain dormant for many years.
- A long period of convalescence followed the operation.
Questions about medicine & body vocabulary
What is the difference between benign and malignant?
A benign tumour grows in place without invading surrounding tissue or spreading to other parts of the body, and it is not cancerous. A malignant tumour invades nearby tissue and can spread through the blood or lymphatic system, which is what makes it cancer. The pair also works figuratively outside medicine, where benign means harmless or gently favourable — a benign climate, benign neglect — and malignant means actively harmful. Note that the g in benign is silent, unlike in malignant.
What is the difference between a diagnosis and a prognosis?
A diagnosis identifies what is wrong: it names the condition on the basis of symptoms, examination and tests. A prognosis predicts what will happen next — the likely course of the illness, the chances of recovery and the expected timescale. So the diagnosis comes first and the prognosis follows from it. Both are Greek and both take -oses in the plural: two conflicting diagnoses. The verb diagnose takes with: she was diagnosed with the condition last year.
Would a doctor say "malady" or "affliction"?
No. Both are literary or archaic words for illness and would sound distinctly odd in a clinical setting, where the vocabulary is condition, disease, disorder, illness or the specific name. Malady appears mainly in older literature and in figurative use about social problems: a malady of modern life. Affliction is similar and often carries a note of suffering endured. Ailment sits between the two registers and is used for minor complaints: the usual winter ailments.