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lesion

le·sion/ˈliːʒən/noun, verb

lesion is a noun meaning “A wound or injury” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled L-E-S-I-O-N and has 2 syllables (le·sion), and it appears 1.2 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of lesion is lesions.

What does lesion mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A wound or injury.

  2. 2

    An infected or otherwise injured or diseased organ or part, especially such on a patch of skin.

  3. 3

    Any compound formed from damage to a nucleic acid.

  4. 4

    Injury or an unfair imbalance in a commutative contract wherein the consideration is less than half of the market value, which then serves as a basis for the injured party to sue to rescind the agreement.

verb

  1. 1

    To wound or injure, especially in an experiment or other controlled procedure.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce lesion?

  • /ˈliːʒən/

Lesion has 2 syllables, split le·sion in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-lesion.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of lesion

  • lesions plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • lesioning participle, present
  • lesioned participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is lesion?

Lesion appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 26,092nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Lesion in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchlésion (a wound or an injury), blesser (to wound or injure, especially in an experiment…)
GermanVerletzung, Läsion (a wound or an injury), enorme Verletzung, Übervorteilung (injury or loss arising from an uneven…)
Portugueselesão (a wound or an injury), lesão enorme (injury or loss arising from an uneven…)
Spanishlesión (a wound or an injury), lesión enorme, lesión enormísima (injury or loss arising from an uneven…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does lesion come from?

From Middle English lesioun (“physical injuring of the body”), from Old French lesion (“hurt, offense, wrong, injury, wound”), from Latin laesiō (“hurt, harm, injury”) (whence -ion (“noun suffix denoting action, result, process, state, condition”)), from laesus (“hurt, injured, wounded, damaged”), past participle of laedō (“to strike, collide, hurt”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).