scoliosis
/ˌskoʊ.liˈoʊ.sɪs/noun
scoliosis is a noun meaning “The abnormal lateral curvature of the spine” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-C-O-L-I-O-S-I-S and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 2 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of scoliosis is scolioses.
What does scoliosis mean?
noun
- 1
The abnormal lateral curvature of the spine.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce scoliosis?
- US /ˌskoʊ.liˈoʊ.sɪs/
- US /ˌskɔ.liˈoʊ.sɪs/
Scoliosis has 4 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-scoliosis.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of scoliosis
- scolioses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is scoliosis?
Scoliosis appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 41,660th 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).
Scoliosis in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense condition in which there is abnormal lateral curvature of the spine:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | scoliose |
| German | Skoliose |
| Portuguese | escoliose |
| Spanish | escoliosis |
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 scoliosis come from?
From Latin scoliosis, from Ancient Greek σκολίωσις (skolíōsis, “twisting; torsion”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).