Meanings
plural mastectomies · alternative masectomy
- The surgical procedure to remove all or part of a breast and sometimes nearby tissues.
Three years later came Angelina Jolie’s revelation that she had the BRCA1 gene, and had decided to have a double mastectomy. The story topped the news, and was written about for days afterwards.
2023 February 6, Hilary Osborne, “I thought knowing I had the ‘cancer gene’ would cast a shadow over my life. Now I have it, I realise how wrong I was”, in The Guardian, →ISSN1 more example
An estimate of U.S. “gender-affirming” double mastectomies published in 2023 in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported 3,125 cases of “breast or chest procedures” in patients ages 12 to 18 between 2016 to 2020.
2024 December 8, Leor Sapir, “A Consensus No Longer”, in City JournalSynonyms: mammectomy
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe surgical procedure to remove all or part of a breast and sometimes nearby tissues.
Origin
- Englishmast-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰ
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁eǵʰs
- Proto-Hellenic*eks
- Ancient Greekἐκ (ek)
- Ancient Greekἐκ- (ek-)
- Proto-Indo-European*temh₁-
- Ancient Greekτέμνω (témnō)
- Ancient Greekἐκτέμνω (ektémnō)
- Ancient Greekἐκτομή (ektomḗ)
- Englishmastectomy
Translations
Bengali ম্যাস্টেকটমি
- ম্যাস্টেকটমি (mêśṭekṭômi)surgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Bulgarian мастектомия
- мастектомия (mastektomija)surgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Catalan mastectomia
- mastectomiasurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Finnish rinnanpoistoleikkaus, mastektomia
- rinnanpoistoleikkaussurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
- mastektomiasurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
French mastectomie
- mastectomiesurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
German Brustamputation, Mastektomie
- Brustamputationsurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
- Mastektomiesurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Icelandic brjóstnám, brottnám brjósts
- brjóstnámsurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
- brottnám brjóstssurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Italian mastectomia
- mastectomiasurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Japanese 乳房切除術
- 乳房切除術 (Chibusa setsujo-jutsu)surgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Māori pokanga ū
- pokanga ūsurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Polish mastektomia
- mastektomiasurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Portuguese mastectomia
- mastectomiasurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Romanian mastectomie, mamectomie
- mastectomiesurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
- mamectomiesurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Russian мастэктоми́я
- мастэктоми́я (mastɛktomíja)surgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Spanish mastectomía
- mastectomíasurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Swedish mastektomi
- mastektomisurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Tagalog alisuso
- alisusosurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Turkish mastektomi
- mastektomisurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Welsh mastectomi
- mastectomisurgical procedure to remove all or part of the breast
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with mastectomy
Cite this entry
mastectomy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mastectomy
“mastectomy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mastectomy. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mastectomy,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mastectomy.
Source: mastectomy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.