Algesi Words: “acromelalgia” to “audioanalgesia”,
Part 1 of 3.

algesi-, alge-, alges-, algesio-, algo-, alg-, algio-, -algesia,
-algesic, -algetic, -algic, -algia, -algy
(Greek: pain, sense of pain; painful; hurting).

Used actively in medical terminology to denote “a condition of sensitivity to pain” as specified by the combining root.

  If you would like to take a self-scoring quiz over some of the words in this section and the other algesi- units, then click Algesi- Quiz so you can take a series of quizzes over all of the “algesi-” word units.

“Though familiar to us all, pain is mercifully difficult to remember once it has passed (if it were not, it has been observed, every family would have but one child). Doctors refer to the short-lived suffering of childbirth or surgery or even a toothache as ‘acute pain’; it is terrible at the time, but ultimately it passes. For untold millions, however, pain does not pass. It sings on through the night, month after month, overwhelming sleep, stifling pleasure, shrinking experience, until there is nothing but pain. This is chronic pain, and its sufferers are legion: there are more than 36 million arthritics in the U.S.; there are 70 million with agonizing back pain; about 20 million who suffer from blinding migraines; millions more who are racked by diseases like sciatica and gout. Most feared of all, the pain associated with cancer afflicts some 800,000 Americans and 18 million people world wide.”

“Pain, said Albert Schweitzer, ‘is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death himself.’ ”

acromelalgia:

1. A throbbing and burning pain in the skin often caused by exertion or heat, affecting the hands and feet, accompanied by a dusky mottled redness of the parts with increased skin temperature.
2. A rare disorder of middle age, characterized by attacks of severe burning pain, reddening, hyperalgesia and sweating, involving one or more extremities, usually both feet; the attacks can be triggered by warmth, and are usually relieved by cold and limb elevation.

acrostealgia:

Painful inflammation of the bones of the hands and feet.

adenalgia:

A glandular pain; a painful swelling in a gland.

adiposalgia:

A condition in which painful areas of subcutaneous fat develop.

aerodontalgia:

1. Toothache experienced at lowered atmospheric pressures, as in aircraft flight or in a decompression chamber, caused by the expansion of air in the maxillary sinuses.
2. Dental pain caused by either increased or reduced atmospheric pressure.

algedonic, algedonia:

Characterized by or relating to pleasure and pain, or the agreeable and the disagreeable.

algesia:

The sense of pain; sensitiveness to pain.

algesiac:

Painful.

algesic:

1. Painful; related to or causing pain.
2. Relating to hypersensitivity to pain; also, algetic.

algesichronometer:

An instrument for recording the time required for the perception of a painful stimulus.

algesimeter:

An instrument used in measuring the sensitiveness to pain as produced by pricking with a sharp point or an apparatus for determining the sensitiveness of the skin.

algesimetry:

The measurement of sensitiveness to pain.

algesiogenic:

Producing pain.

algesireceptor:

In physiology, a pain receptor, usually a bare nerve ending without any organized end organ. Also, nociceptor.

algesiometer:

An instrument for measuring the degree of sensitivity to a painful stimulus; also, algesimeter, algometer, odynometer.

algesthesia:

The sensibility to pain or the perception of pain; any painful sensation.

algesthesis:

The perception of pain; any painful sensation.

algetic:

Painful; causing or pertaining to pain.

algid:

Not related to Greek algein, “to feel pain”. It means “cold, chilly;” from Latin algere, “to be cold”.

alginuresis:

Painful urination.

algiomotor:

Producing painful movements, such as spasm or dysperistalsis.

algiomuscular:

Causing painful muscular movements.

algiovascular, algovascular:

Pertaining to vascular action resulting from painful stimulation.

algodystrophy:

A combination of pain and dystrophic changes in bone.

algogenesia, algogenesis:

The causation or production of pain.

algogenic:

Causing or producing pain.

algolagnia, algolagnistic:

1. The feeling of pleasure in causing or suffering pain.
2. Any psychosexual disorder in which physical or mental pain is an essential part; it may be active (sadism) or passive (masochism).
3. Any psychosexual disorder associated with the derivation of pleasure from experiencing or inflicting physical or psychological pain.

algologist:

One who specializes in the study of pain (algology).

algology:

The discipline that deals with the study of pain.

algometer, algesimeter:

An instrument that purports to measure sensitiveness to pain in terms of amount of pressure exerted on the skin by a blunt instrument.

algometry, algometric:

The measurement of sensitivity to painful stimuli, as with an algometer.

algophily, algophilia:

1. A fondness for pain; synonymous with masochism (deriving sexual pleasure from being treated cruelly).
2. Deriving pleasure when suffering pain.

algophobia:

A morbid, exaggerated, irrational, or excessive fear of pain.

algospasm:

Painful spasm or cramp.

alveoalgia, alveolalgia:

A postoperative complication of tooth extraction in which the blood clot in the socket disintegrates, resulting in focal osteomyelitis and severe pain.

amnalgesia:

A technique by which all pain and memory of a potentially painful procedure are abolished, involving the use of drugs or, for minor procedures, hypnosis.

analgesia, alganesthesia:

1. Absence of the sensibility to pain; absence of pain even with noxious stimulation (hurtful, pernicious, not wholesome); designating particularly the relief of pain without loss of consciousness.
2. A neurologic or pharmacologic state in which painful stimuli are so moderated that, though still perceived, they are no longer painful.

analgesic, analgetic:

1. Relieving pain; an agent that alleviates pain without causing loss of consciousness.
2. A compound capable of producing analgesia, i.e., one that relieves pain by altering perception of pain stimuli without producing anesthesia or loss of consciousness; also, analgetic.
3. Characterized by reduced response to painful stimuli; also, antalgic.

analgesimeter:

A device for causing painful stimuli in order to measure pain under experimental conditions.

analgia:

Absence of sensibility to pain.

analgic:

Insensible to pain.

antalgesia:

A rarely used term for lowering a previous elevation in pain threshold.

aortalgia:

Pain assumed to be due to aneurysm or other pathologic conditions of the aorta.

aphalgesia:

1. Pain induced by objects having a symbolic meaning or significance.
2. A rare type of psychogenic pain disorder in which pain appears on contact with a substance that has some special significance for the subject; such as certain metals, liquids, or textures.

apodemialgia:

Wanderlust; longing to get away from home or to travel; a painful desire to get away. The opposite of nostalgia.

appendalgia:

Obsolete term for pain in the right lower quadrant of the abdomen in the region of the vermiform appendix.

arthralgia:

Severe pain in a joint, especially one not inflammatory in character; also, arthrodynia.

audioanalgesia:

Use of music or sound delivered through earphones to mask pain during dental or surgical procedures.

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Beyond the pleasures and assurances of touch, there is always the looming possibility of pain. As a survival mechanism, pain warns our brains of danger and tells us to act to correct or avoid the cause.

Pain receptors, free nerve endings, are spread over a larger area than any of the other sensory receptors. They completely ignore light contact, and only fire up if the stimuli threaten to damage the tissue. There are more pain receptors in the skin than other types of skin sensors, but they are not evenly distributed. For example, the neck and eyelids are densely covered, but there are few receptors on the sole of the feet and on the ball of the thumb, which is why the needle prick for a blood sample is often done on the thumb.

—Neil McAleer, The Body Almanac

Pain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other.

—Laurence Sterne

Sometimes pain doesn’t always warn us of danger. It comes too late for us to avoid a bad sunburn, and a tumor in the brain can grow unnoticed because the tissues within our skulls have no pain receptors.

—Neil McAleer in The Body Almanac

Quizzes

   You may take a self-scoring quiz over some of the words in this section by just clicking on Algesi Quiz #1 to check your word knowledge of these words.

   You may also take another self-scoring quiz over some of the words in Section C-M by just clicking on Algesi Quiz #2 to check your word knowledge over those other algesi- words.

   Here is another self-scoring quiz over some of the words in Section N-X that are available to you by just clicking on Algesi Quiz #3 so you can check your word knowledge over these other algesi- words.