diagnosis

/ˈdaɪəgˌnoʊsəs/

/daɪɛgˈnʌʊsɪs/

Other forms: diagnoses

When a doctor tells you why you're feeling ill, he gives you a diagnosis. He asks questions, checks your symptoms, and then identifies what's making you sick.

Diagnosis is a medical term, but you can diagnose lots of things: problems in a relationship, a coming economic crisis, or the reason the car won't start. If you have a sore throat, runny nose and a bad cough, most of the time doctors will diagnose a cold. If the car won't start and the lights and radio are also off, the diagnosis is simple: your battery’s dead. Anytime you determine the cause of a problem, you give a diagnosis.

Definitions of diagnosis

1. noun

   identifying the nature or cause of some phenomenon
   synonyms: diagnosing

   types:

   blood typing

   determining a person's blood type by serological methods

   medical diagnosis

   identification of a disease from its symptoms

   uranalysis, urinalysis

   (medicine) the chemical analysis of urine (for medical diagnosis)

   differential diagnosis

   a systematic method of diagnosing a disorder (e.g., headache) that lacks unique symptoms or signs

   medical prognosis, prognosis, prospect

   a prediction of the course of a disease

   type of:

   designation, identification

   the act of designating or identifying something