Meanings
plural tachycardias
- countableuncountablecardiologyA rapid resting heart rate, especially one above 100 beats per minute; palpitations.First known use 19th c.
The heart becomes irritable, there is nervous palpitation, or attacks of paroxysmal tachycardia.
1896 June, E[dwin] M. Hale, “The Heart at the Beginning and Ending of the Menstrual Life: Reprinted from the Hahnemannian Monthly, June, 1896”, in The Hahnemannian Monthly, Philadelphia, Pa.: Homœopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, →OCLC, page 15 more examples
Tachycardias of all types reduce the cardiac output if the rate is high enough. […] The main difference between the tachycardias as regards the reduction of cardiac output is the rate at which they cause a significant reduction of cardiac output, and this depends on the type of tachycardia.
1988, G.M. Woerlee, “Cardiac Arrhythmias – General”, in Common Perioperative Problems and the Anaesthetist (Developments in Critical Care Medicine and Anaesthesiology), Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, →DOI, →ISBN, page 123Tachycardia is defined as a FHR [fetal heart rate] above 160 bpm that lasts for at least 10 minutes. Tachycardia represents increased sympathetic and decreased parasympathetic autonomic tone and, therefore, is generally associated with a normal loss of FHR baseline variability[…].
2003, Rebecca L. Cypher, Donna Adelsperger, Keiko L. Torgersen, “Interpretation of Fetal Heart Rate Patterns”, in Nancy Feinstein, Keiko L. Torgersen, Jana Atterbury, editors, Fetal Heart Monitoring: Principles and Practices, 3rd edition, Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt, →ISBN, page 117With atrial tachycardia, the atria of the heart beats abnormally fast. Though often unpleasant for the patient, an atrial tachycardia is typically not fatal. However, some tachycardia, particularly ventricular tachycardia, can trigger ventricular fibrillation wherein the heart beats chaotically resulting in little or no net flow of blood from the heart to the brain and organs.
2013, “Therapies and Treatments”, in Q. Ashton Acton, editor, Tachycardia: New Insights for the Healthcare Professional, Atlanta, Ga.: ScholarlyEditions, published 2013, →ISBN, page 235Both CRT-Ds and ICDs are implanted under the skin, in the patient’s upper chest area. The devices have wires called leads that attach to the heart and regulate the rhythm of the muscle. Defibrillators help patients with bradycardia – a slow heartbeat – by pacing the heartbeat and those with tachycardia – a fast heartbeat – by delivering shocks that reset heartbeats to normal.
2016 October 11, Hailey Middlebrook, “After 2 deaths, patients warned about heart defibrillators’ failed batteries”, in CNN, archived from the original on 31 Oct 2020When your resting heart rate is over 100 bpm, providers call this tachycardia. This means you may have an issue with your heart’s conduction system that signals your heart to beat. Examples of this type of issue include atrial flutter and ventricular tachycardia.
2024 March 15, “Heart Rate”, in Cleveland Health, archived from the original on 07 Aug 2024Synonyms: tachyrhythmia · Antonyms: bradycardia
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA rapid resting heart rate, especially one above 100 beats per minute; palpitations.
Origin
- Ancient Greekταχύς“swift”
- New Latintachycardia
- Englishtachycardia
Learned borrowing from New Latin tachycardia, from Ancient Greek ταχύς (takhús, “swift”) + καρδία (kardía, “heart”). By surface analysis, tachy- + -cardia. Compare French tachycardie.
More words from New Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans tagikardie
- tagikardierapid resting heart rate
Arabic تسرع القلب
- تسرع القلب (tusrie al-qalb)rapid resting heart rate
Basque takikardia
- takikardiarapid resting heart rate
Bulgarian тахикардия
- тахикардия (tahikardija)rapid resting heart rate
Catalan taquicàrdia
- taquicàrdiarapid resting heart rate
Chinese Cantonese 心跳過速 /心跳过速
- 心跳過速 /心跳过速 (sam¹ tiu³ gwo³ cuk¹)rapid resting heart rate
Chinese Mandarin 心跳過速 /心跳过速
- 心跳過速 /心跳过速 (xīntiào guòsù)rapid resting heart rate
Czech tachykardie
- tachykardierapid resting heart rate
Danish takykardi
- takykardirapid resting heart rate
Dutch tachycardie
- tachycardierapid resting heart rate
Esperanto taĥikardio
- taĥikardiorapid resting heart rate
Estonian tahhükardia
- tahhükardiarapid resting heart rate
Finnish tiheälyöntisyys, takykardia
- tiheälyöntisyysrapid resting heart rate
- takykardiarapid resting heart rate
French tachycardie
- tachycardierapid resting heart rate
German Tachykardie
- Tachykardierapid resting heart rate
Greek ταχυκαρδία
- ταχυκαρδία (tachykardía)rapid resting heart rate
Hebrew טָכִיקַרְדְיָה
- טָכִיקַרְדְיָה (takhikardya)rapid resting heart rate
Hungarian tachikardia
- tachikardiarapid resting heart rate
Icelandic hraðtaktur
- hraðtakturrapid resting heart rate
Indonesian takikardia
- takikardiarapid resting heart rate
Irish taicéacairde
- taicéacairderapid resting heart rate
Italian tachicardia
- tachicardiarapid resting heart rate
Japanese 頻脈
- 頻脈 (hinmyaku)rapid resting heart rate
Korean 빠른맥
- 빠른맥 (ppareunmaek)rapid resting heart rate
Latin tachycardia
- tachycardiarapid resting heart rate
Latvian tahikardija
- tahikardijarapid resting heart rate
Lithuanian tachikardija
- tachikardijarapid resting heart rate
Malay takikardia
- takikardiarapid resting heart rate
Norwegian Bokmål takykardi
- takykardirapid resting heart rate
Persian تند تپشی, تندتپشی
- تند تپشیrapid resting heart rate
- تندتپشیrapid resting heart rate
Polish tachykardia, częstoskurcz
- tachykardiarapid resting heart rate
- częstoskurczrapid resting heart rate
Portuguese taquicardia
- taquicardiarapid resting heart rate
Romanian tahicardie
- tahicardierapid resting heart rate
Russian тахикарди́я
- тахикарди́я (taxikardíja)rapid resting heart rate
Slovak tachykardia
- tachykardiarapid resting heart rate
Spanish taquicardia
- taquicardiarapid resting heart rate
Swedish takykardi
- takykardirapid resting heart rate
Thai หัวใจเต้นเร็ว
- หัวใจเต้นเร็ว (hŭa jai dtâyn reo)rapid resting heart rate
Turkish taşikardi
- taşikardirapid resting heart rate
Ukrainian тахікарді́я
- тахікарді́я (taxikardíja)rapid resting heart rate
Yiddish טאַטשיקאַרדיאַ
- טאַטשיקאַרדיאַ (tatshikardya)rapid resting heart rate
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with tachycardia
All rhymes →Cite this entry
tachycardia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tachycardia
“tachycardia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tachycardia. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tachycardia,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tachycardia.
Source: tachycardia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.