polio

po·lio
P3O1L1I1O1
UK/ˈpəʊljəʊ/US/ˈpoʊlioʊ/US/-ljoʊ/

noun

A person who has poliomyelitis.

Similar
poliomyelitisinfantile paralysisacute anterior poliomyelitis
Less commonScrabble 7

Meanings

polio1

nounpolio (countable and uncountable, plural polios)

plural polios

  1. abbreviationuncountableAbbreviation of poliomyelitis.
  2. countableinformalA person who has poliomyelitis.

    They don't need social service workers running back and forth every month or two to see if the polios are playing stickball in the street because they never will.

    1977, United States. Congress. House. Welfare Reform Subcommittee, Administration's Welfare Reform Proposal: Joint Hearings..., page 223
    1 more example

    The “polios” (as they called themselves) in Warm Springs didn't deny the seriousness of their health issues or the impairments to their physiology. But their most critical struggle, they claimed, involved healing sorely wounded spirits.

    2008, Cynthia Comacchio, Janet Golden, George Weisz, Healing the World's Children, page 141

Polio2

proper nounPolio (plural Polios)

plural Polios

  1. A surname from Spanish.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounan acute viral disease marked by inflammation of nerve cells of the brain stem and spinal cord

Similar
poliomyelitisinfantile paralysisacute anterior poliomyelitis

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Polio · proper noun

  1. SpanishPolio
  2. EnglishPolio

Borrowed from Spanish Polio. This surname is mostly found in El Salvador.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with polio

All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

polio. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polio

MLA

“polio.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polio. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “polio,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polio.

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