prosthesis
prosthesis Lexical Profile
prosthesis Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An artificial device that replaces a missing or defective body part, such as a limb, joint, heart valve, or tooth.
"After months of physical therapy, she learned to walk comfortably with her new lower-leg prosthesis."
The surgical or dental branch of medicine concerned with the making and fitting of artificial body parts, or the procedure of fitting such a device.
"Advances in maxillofacial prosthesis have greatly improved functional outcomes for patients recovering from facial trauma."
In linguistics, the addition of a sound or syllable to the beginning of a word without changing its meaning or grammatical structure, as in the evolution of Latin 'schola' to Spanish 'escuela'.
"The initial vowel in Spanish 'estrella' is a classic example of phonological prosthesis."
Word Nuance & Usage
In strict medical usage, 'prosthesis' (plural 'prostheses') refers to the artificial device itself, whereas 'prosthetics' refers to the field of designing and fitting such devices, though 'prosthetic' is also widely used as a countable noun synonym for 'prosthesis'.
• Rhymes for prosthesis
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the mid-16th century via Late Latin from Ancient Greek 'prosthesis' ('addition'), derived from 'prostithenai' ('to add to'), from 'pros-' ('to, toward') and 'tithenai' ('to put, place'). It originally entered English as a grammatical term before acquiring its surgical sense in the early 18th century.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.