glaucoma

Borrowed from Ancient Greek γλαύκωμα (glaúkōma, “an opacity of the crystalline lens”), derived from γλαυκός (glaukós, “blue-green”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡlɔːˈkəʊmə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɡlɔːˈkoʊmə/, /ɡlaʊˈkoʊmə/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ɡlɑˈkoʊmə/

glaucoma (countable and uncountable, plural glaucomas or glaucomata)

1. (pathology) An eye disease or disorder that is defined as a characteristic optic neuropathy, or disease of the optic nerve, possibly, if untreated, leading to damage of the optic disc of the eye and resultant visual field loss due to lack of communication between the retina and the brain, which can lead to blindness.
   • 1838, William Mackenzie, “Remarks on Lenticular Glaucoma”, in The London Medical Gazette; Being a Weekly Journal of Medicine and the Collateral Sciences, volume II, London: […] Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], page 105, column 2:

     Professor Rosas, in his last work on Diseases of the Eye (Lehre von den Augenkrankheiten, Wien, 1834, p. 326), distinguishes three kinds of glaucoma, viz. glaucoma of the hyaloid, glaucoma of the retina, and glaucoma of the choroid. He makes no mention of lenticular glaucoma, which is much more common than any of the three which he particularizes. Indeed, vitreous, retinal, and choroidal glaucomata, are, to say the least of them, rare diseases.

   • 1948 June, Edward J. Curran, “Advances in the Treatment of Glaucoma: The Joseph Schneider Foundation Eye Presentation”, in Postgraduate Medicine, volume III, number VI, page 409, column 2:

     Nearly all of the so-called noncongestive glaucomata are of Types 1, 2, and 3.

   • 1952, The West Indian Medical Journal, page 180:

     The term primary glaucoma designates that group of glaucomata, the cause of which is not yet known, in contrast to secondary glaucoma, which is due to some obvious cause.

   • 1960, Premier Congrès de la Société Européenne d’Ophtalmologie, page 28:

     The development of latent glaucomata is usually slow and chronic, following the rhythm of primary glaucomata.

   • 1962, Werner Kalow, “[Human Hereditary Defects With Altered Drug Response] Angle-Closure Glaucoma”, in Pharmacogenetics: Heredity and the Response to Drugs, Philadelphia, Pa.; London: W. B. Saunders Company, →LCCN, page 193, column 2:

     Unfortunately, most of the older data are of limited value because the distinction between the various forms of glaucoma was often difficult and thus unreliable and because glaucomata are diseases of advanced age.

   • 2013 January 15, Dave Andron, “Where's Waldo?”, in Justified, season 4, episode 2:

     Oh, I got the glaucoma, real bad.

• IPA^(key): /ɡlawˈkɔ.ma/
• Rhymes: -ɔma
• Hyphenation: glau‧cò‧ma

glaucoma m (plural glaucomi)

1. (pathology) glaucoma

• glaucūma (feminine, 1st declension, Plautine)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek γλαύκωμα (glaúkōma).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɡɫau̯ˈkoː.ma]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ɡlau̯ˈkɔː.ma]

glaucōma n (genitive glaucōmatis); third declension

1. dimming of the vitreous body in the eye, glaucoma
2. chicanery, con game, swack
   • 1662, Ladislaus Listius (1628–1663), Cladis Mohachianae [The Fall of Mohács], volume 2, page 48:

     Id quoque quod de demolitionibus et disjectionibus Palancarum in eadem cum turca transactum clausumque est, in grande enormeque dedecus et damnum patriae nostrae vergit. Nam sub vocabulo destructionis Palancarum nihil aliud latet (licet istud suae sangvinariae malitiae glaucoma admodum tenui explicationis caliptra tegere studiant), quam exterminatio militum hajdonum trans-Tibiscum locatorum.

     This also what of demolition and dishevelment of the palankas has been wrought and finessed with the Turk, sets a great and enormous disgrace and wound to our fatherland. For under the concept of a destruction of the palankas nothing is hidden (though they strive to cover this swack of their thugduggery by spreading the thin headscarf of unfolding a story) but the extermination of the hajduk soldiers sent forth over Tibiscum.

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

• → English: glaucoma
• → Finnish: glaukooma
• → French: glaucome (learned)
• → Italian: glaucoma (learned)
• → Portuguese: glaucoma (learned)
• → Spanish: glaucoma (learned)

• “glaucōma”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “glaucōma”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

• Rhymes: -omɐ
• Hyphenation: glau‧co‧ma

glaucoma m (plural glaucomas)

1. (pathology) glaucoma (eye disease)

• glauco

• “glaucoma”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “glaucoma”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• IPA^(key): /ɡlauˈkoma/ [ɡlau̯ˈko.ma]
• Rhymes: -oma
• Syllabification: glau‧co‧ma

glaucoma m (plural glaucomas)

1. glaucoma

• “glaucoma”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025