Pick's disease

noun

A rare neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive destruction of nerve cells in the brain. Symptoms include aphasia and dementia.

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Meanings

nounPick's disease (uncountable)
  1. uncountableA rare neurodegenerative disease that causes progressive destruction of nerve cells in the brain. Symptoms include aphasia and dementia.

    Pick’s disease was like dementia for middle-aged people. Toward the end she couldn’t even speak or seem to understand anything anyone said to her.

    2024, Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars, Harvill Secker, page 127

Origin

Named after Arnold Pick, psychiatry professor who first discovered and described the disease in 1892.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Pick's disease. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pick's%20disease

MLA

“Pick's disease.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pick's%20disease. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Pick's disease,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Pick's%20disease.

Source: Pick's disease on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.