phimosis
/faɪˈmoʊ.sɪs/noun
phimosis is a noun meaning “A contraction of the foreskin (either as a stage of development or a pathological condition), which prevents it from being retracted” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-H-I-M-O-S-I-S and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 19 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of phimosis is phimoses.
What does phimosis mean?
noun
- 1
A contraction of the foreskin (either as a stage of development or a pathological condition), which prevents it from being retracted.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce phimosis?
- UK /fʌɪˈməʊ.sɪs/
- US /faɪˈmoʊ.sɪs/
Phimosis has 3 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-phimosis.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of phimosis
- phimoses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is phimosis?
Phimosis appears about once in every 19 million words in written English, the 131,834th 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).
Phimosis in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense contraction of the foreskin:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | phimosis |
| German | Phimose, Vorhautverengung |
| Portuguese | fimose |
| Spanish | fimosis |
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 phimosis come from?
From Ancient Greek φίμωσις (phímōsis, “muzzling; contraction of the prepuce”), from φῑμόω (phīmóō, “to muzzle”) + -σις (-sis, nominal suffix).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).