diagnose
Formsdiagnoses, diagnosing, diagnosed
- 1To identify which disease is causing a sick person's signs and symptoms.
Specialists can diagnose rare conditions using detailed genetic testing.
The physician diagnosed pneumonia after reviewing the chest X-ray.
Similaridentify, detect, recognize
Note
A verb built backward from its noun: diagnosis came first, and diagnose was clipped from it, much as sclerose was shaped from sclerosis. In medical use the object is usually the condition itself. A physician diagnoses pneumonia or a rare genetic disorder, and the verb names the conclusion reached rather than the examination that leads to it.
- 2To determine the underlying cause of a problem or fault.
Technicians diagnose software faults by isolating each component in turn.
She quickly diagnosed the leak as a worn seal in the pump.
Similaridentify, pinpoint, troubleshoot, determine
Note
Outside the clinic, the verb's favorite object is fault: engine faults, software faults, faults that are hard to diagnose. M. J. Wilson uses it in 1962 for fitters struggling with new diesel locomotives, and John J. Schiavone's Training for On-board Bus Electronics (2002) gives it to mechanics with handheld tools. The picture borrowed from the medical sense is reading symptoms back to a hidden cause. That makes it a troubleshooting word, not a word for simply noticing a problem.
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Origin
A back-formation from the noun "diagnosis."