Diabetes Meaning
/ˌdaɪəˈbiːtiːz/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounDiabetes mellitus; any of a group of metabolic diseases whereby a person (or other animal) has high blood sugar due to an inability to produce, or inability to metabolize, sufficient quantities of the hormone insulin.
nounAny food or beverage with a high amount of sugar.
Sentence Examples
He was watchful for any sign of diabetes.
The number of people with diabetes is rising globally.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Because her body cannot produce enough insulin, she was diagnosed with type 1 ____ at age twelve.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He was watchful for any sign of ____.
Word Origin & History
From Latin diabētēs (“siphon”), from Ancient Greek διαβήτης (diabḗtēs), from Ancient Greek διαβαίνω (diabaínō, “to pass through”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"In the UK, one in 10 people over 40 live with type 2 diabetes, while one in four have high blood pressure, a condition described as a “silent killer” because it increases the risk of heart attack and stroke but rarely causes symptoms beforehand."
— 2020 September 7, Ian Sample, The Guardian:
"This milkshake is pure diabetes, as my friends and I agreed on as a joke when we first came to Black Tap."
— 2017 August 6, “The craziest things you have to eat in New York City”, in Silver Stories:
"A Sheeps or Goats bladder being burnt, and the ashes given inwardly, helps the Diabetes, or continuall pissing."
— 1649, Nicholas Culpeper, The Physical Directory:
"The lady laboured under a Diabetes, in consequence of having used the waters injudiciously for another complaint; and, that she might not be an impediment to the carriage, by ordering it to halt,as often as she should have occasion to disembogue, she had provided herself with a leathern contrivance […]."
— 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Because her body cannot produce enough insulin, she was diagnosed with type 1 ____ at age twelve.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He was watchful for any sign of ____.