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amputee

/ˈæmpjəˌti/
IPA guide

Other forms: amputees

A person who's had an arm or a leg surgically removed is an amputee. Some amputees get artificial limbs that allow them to be nearly as mobile as before the loss of a limb.

Some amputees lose a limb in an accident, while others have surgery to stop a disease, like gangrene, from spreading from an arm or leg to the rest of the body. The surgery to remove a limb is called an amputation, and it's also the word amputee comes from. An amputation was originally "a cutting off of tree branches," from the Latin amputare, "cut off, cut around, or prune."

Definitions of amputee
  1. noun
    someone who has had a limb removed by amputation
    see moresee less
    type of:
    unfortunate, unfortunate person
    a person who suffers misfortune
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