Okuzeka
Medicine vocabulary · Symptoms and Signs

Bleeding

Meaning in medicine, with examples

/ˈbliːdɪŋ/nounCore term

In medicine, bleeding means: Loss of blood from a damaged blood vessel, either outside the body from a wound or inside the body, where it may not be seen.

In Turkish: kanama

How it is used

Used for any blood loss: 'GI bleeding', 'post-operative bleeding', 'bleeding gums'. Doctors ask where the bleeding is from, how much there is and whether the patient takes blood thinners. The formal word for serious bleeding is haemorrhage (US hemorrhage).

Example sentences

  1. The bleeding stopped after ten minutes of firm pressure.

  2. Any bleeding when you open your bowels?

Common collocations

  • heavy bleeding
  • internal bleeding
  • stop the bleeding
  • rectal bleeding
  • bleeding risk
  • anticoagulantA medicine that makes the blood take longer to clot, used to prevent or treat clots in conditions such as atrial fibrillation and DVT.
  • blood transfusionThe giving of donated blood or blood products into a patient's vein, for example after heavy bleeding or for severe anemia.
  • anemiaA condition in which the blood has too little hemoglobin or too few red cells, so less oxygen reaches the body's tissues.
  • complicationA new problem that develops because of an illness or a treatment, making the situation more serious or harder to manage.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Symptoms and Signs

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level:

This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.