leukaemia

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A form of leukemia — Any of a class of types of cancer affecting the blood cells, especially the white blood cells (usually with massive leukocytosis), and the blood cell–forming (hematopoietic) tissues.

Similar
leukemialeucaemiacancer of the blood
Less commonScrabble 15

Meanings

nounleukaemia (countable and uncountable, plural leukaemias)

plural leukaemias

  1. CommonwealthalternativecountableuncountableAlternative spelling of leukemia.

    2010, Sheryl Persson, Smallpox, Syphilis and Salvation: Medical Breakthroughs That Changed the World, Exisle Publishing, NSW, page 283, There are different types of childhood leukaemia, which can be classified as acute or chronic. In children, about 98 per cent of leukaemias are acute.

    3 more examples

    1979, Medical Association of South Africa, South African Medical Journal, Volume 55, Issues 1-14, page 9, On the other hand, adult respiratory distress syndrome is a prominent complication in patients with acute leukaemia and to this must be added the whole spectrum of opportunistic infections.

    1992, Charles L. Sawyers, The bcr-abl Gene in Chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia, Owen N. Witte (editor), Cancer Surveys, Volume 15: Oncogenes in the Development of Leukaemia, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, page 37, The molecular biologists′ vision that the cloning of the chromosomal translocations found in human leukaemias would lead to the identification of the genes that cause these leukaemias has become a reality with the demonstration that the fusion protein generated by the chromosomal translocation found in chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) can induce leukaemia in mice (Daley et al, 1990; Kelliher et al, 1990).

    2009, M. C. G. Israëls, The Shortcomings of Animal Research in Leukæmia, Ciba Foundation Symposium, Leukaemia Research, page 28, In transmitted mouse leukaemia the cells remain fixed in type, but tissue culture methods applied to human acute leukaemias show that these cells are not fixed in type.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounmalignant neoplasm of blood-forming tissues; characterized by abnormal proliferation of leukocytes; one of the four major types of cancer

Similar
leukemialeucaemiacancer of the blood
Broader
cancermalignant neoplastic disease
Also see

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

leukaemia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leukaemia

MLA

“leukaemia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leukaemia. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “leukaemia,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/leukaemia.

Source: leukaemia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.