Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A deposit or degenerative accumulation of lipid-containing plaques on the innermost layer of the wall of an artery.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A name given to various kinds of encysted tumors, the contents of which have the appearance of bread-sauce.
  • noun The formation of thickened patches of the inner coat of an artery (much more rarely of a vein), constituting flattened cavities which contain a pasty mass exhibiting fat-globules, fatty acid crystals, cholesterin, more or less calcareous matter, etc. Also atherome.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An encysted tumor containing curdy matter.
  • noun A disease characterized by thickening and fatty degeneration of the inner coat of the arteries.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology An abnormal fatty deposit which develops within the walls of arteries.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a fatty deposit in the intima (inner lining) of an artery; can obstruct blood flow

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin athērōma, tumor full of pus that is like gruel, from Greek, from athēra, gruel.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin athērōma ("tumor full gruel-like matter"), from ἀθήρωμα (athērōma).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word atheroma.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • What is bread-sauce?

    July 7, 2021

  • It's an English thing. Stale bread used to thicken a white sauce. Often served at Xmas with murdered animals.

    July 8, 2021