diagnoses

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of diagnosis.

   Both diagnoses pointed to the same underlying infection.

   The specialist reviewed several conflicting diagnoses from earlier visits.

   Note

   Greek-derived nouns ending in -is form their plural by changing it to -es, and diagnosis follows crisis/crises and thesis/theses. Only the countable use takes a plural: separate findings are diagnoses, but diagnosis as a process stays singular. Biologists use the plural as well, for the formal Latin descriptions that tell species apart. The same spelling also serves as the verb's present form, as in she diagnoses.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of diagnose.

   The physician diagnoses each case only after reviewing the full history.

   The software diagnoses network problems and flags them for the team.

   Note

   A transitive verb, so it nearly always has an object: a doctor diagnoses an illness, a mechanic diagnoses a fault. The broader sense of diagnose lets the subject be anyone or anything that works out the cause of a problem, from a technician to a piece of software. Only he, she and it take this form. Other persons use the base form: I diagnose, they diagnose.

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