quadriplegia
quad·ri·ple·gia/ˌkwɑdɹɪˈplid͡ʒə/noun
quadriplegia is a noun meaning “Paralysis from the neck down” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled Q-U-A-D-R-I-P-L-E-G-I-A and has 4 syllables (quad·ri·ple·gia), and it appears about once in every 14 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of quadriplegia is quadriplegias.
What does quadriplegia mean?
noun
- 1
Paralysis from the neck down.
- 2
Paralysis of all four limbs.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce quadriplegia?
- US /ˌkwɑdɹɪˈplid͡ʒə/
- UK /ˌkwɒdɹɪˈpliːd͡ʒə/
Quadriplegia has 4 syllables, split quad·ri·ple·gia in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of quadriplegia
- quadriplegias plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is quadriplegia?
Quadriplegia appears about once in every 14 million words in written English, the 114,361st 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).
Quadriplegia in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense paralysis of all four limbs:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | quadriplégie, tétraplégie |
| German | Quadriplegie, Tetraplegie |
| Spanish | tetraplejia, tetraplejía, cuadriplejia, cuadriplejía, cuadraplejia, cuadraplejía |
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 quadriplegia come from?
From quadri- (“four”) + -plegia, from Ancient Greek πλήσσειν (plḗssein, “to strike”); probably patterned after paraplegia.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).