n. pl. di·ag·no·ses (-sēz) 1. Medicine a. The act or process of identifying or determining the nature and cause of a disease or injury through evaluation of patient history, examination, and review of laboratory data. b. The opinion derived from such an evaluation. 2. a. A critical analysis of the nature of something. b. The conclusion reached by such analysis. 3. Biology A brief description of the distinguishing characteristics of an organism, as for taxonomic classification. [Greek diagnōsis, discernment, from diagignōskein, to distinguish : dia-, apart; see DIA- + gignōskein, gnō-, to come to know, discern; see gnō- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.