Words / R / Medicine

relapse

noun/rɪˈlæps/

B1CEFR level
30/100Rarity: fairly common
TechnicalRegister

A return of illness after a period of improvement.

She suffered a relapse two months into recovery.

Similar: recurrence, setback

Origin: Latin relabi 'to slip back'.

Topic: Diagnosis 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.

Get words like relapse on your lock screen, a few a day, with review that makes them stick.

Download on the App Store Lexfall puts a new word on your home and lock screen through widgets, so you learn without opening an app. Free to download. After a free trial, a subscription unlocks every field. Built for iPhone, iOS 15.1 or later.
QR code that opens Lexfall on the App Store
On a computer?Scan with your iPhone camera.

More medicine words: Diagnosis