Etimology
Borrowed from Latin cancer (“crab”), a calque of Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab; ulcer; cancer”) (possibly cognate), applied to cancerous tumors because the enlarged veins resembled the legs of a crab. Doublet of canker and chancre.
noun
cancer (countable and uncountable, plural cancers)
(medicine, oncology, pathology) A disease in which the cells of a tissue undergo uncontrolled (and often rapid) proliferation.
(figuratively) Something damaging that spreads throughout something else.
Examples
If successful, Edison and Ford—in 1914—would move society away from the […] hazards of gasoline cars: air and water pollution, noise and noxiousness, constant coughing and the undeniable rise in cancers caused by smoke exhaust particulates.
Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you.
Cancers are common diseases; in the aggregate, they are among the leading causes of death nationally and worldwide, and their incidence is increasing as the population ages.
Sierra Leone's post-dictator problems are almost absurd in their breadth. It once exported rice; now it can't feed itself. The life span of the average citizen is 39, the shortest in Africa. Unemployment stands at 87 percent and tuberculosis is spreading out of control. Corruption, brazen and ubiquitous, is a cancer on the economy.
Related words
synonyms
(disease): malignancy
(something which spreads): growth, lichen
hypernyms
(disease): growth
(disease): tumor
(disease): neoplasia
(disease): neoplasm
hyponyms
carcinomaadenocarcinoma
adenocarcinoma
leukaemia / leukemia
lymphoma
sarcomalymphosarcoma
lymphosarcoma
See also: Derived terms denoting types
coordinate terms
benign tumor
benign neoplasm
benign neoplasia
related terms
Cancer
cancerization
cancerize
cancerous
canker
carcinogen
chancre
precancerous
adjective
cancer (comparative more cancer, superlative most cancer)
(slang) Extremely unpleasant and annoying.
Examples
Synonyms: cancerous, AIDS
I used to love this game, but the new meta is straight up cancer.