Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of touching; feeling by the sense of touch.
  • noun Specifically, in medicine, manual examination, or a method of exploring various organs by feeling them with the hand or hands.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Act of touching or feeling.
  • noun (Med.) Examination of a patient by touch.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine The act of feeling or pushing on various parts of a patient’s body to determine medical condition such as the normality of organs or the presence or absence of tumors, swelling, muscle tension, etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a method of examination in which the examiner feels the size or shape or firmness or location of something (of body parts when the examiner is a health professional)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From palpate + -tion

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Examples

  • The average size of tumors detected by palpation is about 45 billion cells and about an inch and a quarter in diameter; these tumors have doubled an additional eight or nine times.

    Good News and Bad News About Breast Cancer 1996

  • The average size of tumors detected by palpation is about 45 billion cells and about an inch and a quarter in diameter; these tumors have doubled an additional eight or nine times.

    Good News and Bad News About Breast Cancer 1996

  • This equals a median reduction of 52 percent in the length of the spleen below the ribcage, measured by palpation, which is how spleen size is typically measured in clinical practice.

    EurekAlert! - Breaking News 2009

  • The ads promote a quick physical exam, called palpation, in which doctors feel for unusual lumps in the thyroid, a small gland in the front of the neck.

    NYT > Home Page By NATASHA SINGER 2009

  • This equals a median reduction of 52 percent in the length of the spleen below the ribcage, measured by palpation, which is how spleen size is typically measured in clinical practice.

    EurekAlert! - Breaking News 2009

  • In fact, in this report there's also some commentary about the role of breast palpation which is not being encouraged.

    CNN Transcript Nov 17, 2009 2009

  • One of the cardinal features of fibromyalgia is extreme pain upon palpation of at least 11 of 18 so-called tender points across the body.

    Study links obesity to greater pain, weakness in fibromyalgia patients 2011

  • By 90 days, the fetus drops out of range of the ultrasound and manual rectal palpation is used to monitor the foal.

    Liz O'Connell: The Patter of Hooves Liz O'Connell 2011

  • By 90 days, the fetus drops out of range of the ultrasound and manual rectal palpation is used to monitor the foal.

    Liz O'Connell: The Patter of Hooves Liz O'Connell 2011

  • One of the cardinal features of fibromyalgia is extreme pain upon palpation of at least 11 of 18 so-called tender points across the body.

    Study links obesity to greater pain, weakness in fibromyalgia patients 2011

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