tetanus

UK: /ˈtɛtənəs/ US: /ˈtɛtənəs/ ,(tet′n əs)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

tet•a•nus /ˈtɛtənəs/   n. [uncountable]

1. Pathology a disease in which muscles, esp. of the lower jaw and neck, undergo spasms and then become stiff:
   Tetanus sometimes leads to paralysis of the muscles.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

tet•a•nus  (tet′n əs), n. 

1. Pathology an infectious, often fatal disease caused by a specific bacterium that enters the body through wounds and characterized by respiratory paralysis and tonic spasms and rigidity of the voluntary muscles, esp. those of the neck and lower jaw. Cf. lockjaw. 
2. Microbiology Also called tet′anus bacil′lus. [Bacteriol.] the bacterium, Clostridium tetani, causing this disease.
3. [Physiol.] a state of sustained contraction of a muscle during which the muscle does not relax to its initial length or tension, induced by a rapid succession of stimuli.

• Latin, as above
• Greek tétanos spasm (of muscles), tetanus; replacing Middle English tetane
• Latin
• 1350–1400

tet′a•nal, adj. 
tet′a•noid′, adj. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

tetanus / ˈtɛtənəs/ noun

1. Also called: lockjaw an acute infectious disease in which sustained muscular spasm, contraction, and convulsion are caused by the release of exotoxins from the bacterium, Clostridium tetani: infection usually occurs through a contaminated wound
2. any tense contraction of a muscle, esp when produced by electric shocks

Etymology: 16th Century: via Latin from Greek tetanos, from tetanos taut, from teinein to stretch

ˈtetanal adjective

ˈtetaˌnoid adjective