Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An abnormal condition characterized by periodic painful muscular spasms and tremors, caused by faulty calcium metabolism and associated with diminished function of the parathyroid glands.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A disease characterized by irregularly intermittent tonic spasms of various groups of muscles, more commonly those of the upper extremities, unaccompanied, as a rule, by fever.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Med.) A morbid condition resembling tetanus, but distinguished from it by being less severe and having intermittent spasms.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun medicine A condition characterized by painful
muscular spasms , caused by faultycalcium metabolism
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun clinical neurological syndrome characterized by muscular twitching and cramps and (when severe) seizures; associated with calcium deficiency (hypoparathyroidism) or vitamin D deficiency or alkalosis
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Experiments on animals, which proved more sensitive to loss of the parathyroids than men were, showed that muscles tightened convulsively, a situation called tetany (tet'uh-nee; "stretch" G).
The Human Brain Asimov, Isaac 1963
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Hypocalcemic tetany as an early sign of DiGeorge syndrome in adult woman.
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Last time we had a bird, a parakeet, it lived for five or six years and then had a stroke, began having a kind of rolling tetany.
Archive 2010-06-01 Steve Perry 2010
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Last time we had a bird, a parakeet, it lived for five or six years and then had a stroke, began having a kind of rolling tetany.
Creatures of the Night Steve Perry 2010
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You could actually feel the delicious muscle tetany spasming through Clegg's jaw as he fought to control the Coitus reservatus for after PMQs.
Vote Clegg Get Brown Newmania 2008
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Although tetany occurs in all muscles that are stimulated, flexor groups are usually stronger and predominate.
July 18, 1871 Holly 2006
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This glandular decline interferes with calcium metabolism and may produce the condition of hypocalcemic tetany.
Meditation as Medicine M.D. Dharma Singh Khalsa 2001
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This glandular decline interferes with calcium metabolism and may produce the condition of hypocalcemic tetany.
Meditation as Medicine M.D. Dharma Singh Khalsa 2001
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“I could not control it,” he said, “and my back and legs hurt; it was almost like tetany violent muscle spasms and convulsions.”
Bitter Harvest Ann Rule 2000
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The complications of tetany and hypoparathyrodism were not understood.
Emil Theodor Kocher 1997
reallifepixel commented on the word tetany
Result of abnormal calcium metabolism
July 29, 2009