What does dyscrasia mean?
Dyscrasia is a formal medical noun denoting an abnormal or disordered state of the blood. In modern clinical usage it appears chiefly in the phrase 'blood dyscrasia', which covers disorders affecting the blood's cellular components, such as leukaemias, anaemias, and clotting abnormalities. The word carries an ancient pedigree: it descends from the Greek 'dyskrasia', meaning 'bad mixture', and reflects the old humoral theory of medicine, in which health depended on a proper balance of the body's four fluids — blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. A dyscrasia was literally a wrong mixing of these humours, and so the root cause of disease. Although that theory is long obsolete, the term survives in haematology and retains a precise technical sense. Because of its classical origin, dyscrasia lends writing a learned, slightly archaic tone, and it is rarely encountered outside medical literature or historical discussions of medicine.
nounAn abnormal or disordered condition of the blood, formerly used in medicine as a general term for any imbalance of the body's humours; by extension, an unhealthy mixture or disorder.
- In medicine: any abnormal or pathological condition of the blood, especially one affecting its cellular components (e.g. leukaemias and related disorders).
- Historically (in humoral pathology): an imbalance or bad mixture of the four bodily humours, believed to cause disease.
"The physician attributed the patient's persistent fatigue to a blood dyscrasia."
"Routine screening revealed a dyscrasia that required further haematological investigation."
"Galenic physicians held that every disease arose from some dyscrasia of the humours."
Countable when referring to individual or specific blood disorders; often treated as uncountable when speaking of the general phenomenon.
"Several drug-induced dyscrasias were reported during the trial."
For centuries doctors blamed illness on 'bad mixtures' in the blood — and the word dyscrasia is the fossil of that theory.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of dyscrasia
Dyscrasia derives from the Greek 'dyskrasia', meaning 'bad mixture', formed from 'dys-' ('bad, difficult') and 'krasis' ('mixture, blending'). It entered English in the mid-16th century through late Latin, carrying the sense from ancient Greek humoral pathology, where disease was understood as an improper blending of the four bodily fluids. The cognate Greek noun 'krasis' gave English words such as 'crasis'. The modern restriction of the term to disorders of the blood developed within medical usage over subsequent centuries.
Related word forms
How dyscrasia is actually used
Dyscrasia is a formal, technical term used almost exclusively in medical contexts, most often in the fixed phrase 'blood dyscrasia' referring to disorders such as leukaemia or aplastic anaemia. Outside medicine it sounds archaic or literary. It is uncountable when denoting the general concept and countable when referring to specific disorders.
Easily confused with dyscrasia
Dysphrasia refers to a disorder of speech, whereas dyscrasia refers to a disordered state of the blood or bodily fluids.