volvulus
/ˈvɑl.vjəl.əs/noun
volvulus is a noun meaning “Obstruction of the bowel in which a loop of bowel has abnormally twisted on itself” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-O-L-V-U-L-U-S and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 19 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of volvulus is volvuli or volvuluses.
What does volvulus mean?
noun
- 1
Obstruction of the bowel in which a loop of bowel has abnormally twisted on itself.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce volvulus?
- UK /ˈvɒl.vjʊl.əs/
- US /ˈvɑl.vjəl.əs/
Volvulus has 3 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of volvulus
- volvuli plural
- volvuluses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is volvulus?
Volvulus 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).
Volvulus in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense twist in a loop of the bowel:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | volvulus |
| German | Darmverschlingung, Darmverdrehung |
| Portuguese | vólvulo |
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 volvulus come from?
Learned borrowing from Late Latin volvulus (“tending to roll”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).