Words / M / Medicine

melaena

noun/mɪˈliːnə/

C2CEFR level
92/100Rarity: very rare
TechnicalRegister

The passage of black, tarry, offensive-smelling stools resulting from digested blood in the upper gastrointestinal tract.

The patient presented with melaena and a haemoglobin of 68, indicating a significant upper GI bleed.

Topic: Gastroenterology in Medical English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More medicine words: Gastroenterology