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Tumorous

Disease
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

“Tumorous” means having, resembling, or marked by a tumor: an abnormal swelling or growth in the body. Figuratively, it can describe something bloated, invasive, or dangerously accumulating.

Detailed Definition
In medical language, “tumorous” describes tissue affected by a tumor, whether benign or malignant. In poetry, the adjective may evoke the body’s unsettling vulnerability through images of swelling, hidden growth, pain, and invasion. It can also be used figuratively for cities, institutions, grief, wealth, or violence that expands unnaturally and threatens what surrounds it. Its harsh sound and clinical associations make it useful for Gothic, confessional, political, and illness-centered poems concerned with decay, fear, and loss of control.
Example
Example in poetry:
Tumorous growth choking the ancient vine (William Wordsworth, "The Excursion"); A tumorous swell upon the face of the cliff (Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Prometheus Unbound"); Tumorous pride inflating the tyrant's chest (Lord Byron, "Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte"); Tumorous clouds gathering on the horizon (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"); Tumorous decay eating at the castle wall (Edgar Allan Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher")
Additional Notes
"Tumorous" means having, forming, or resembling a tumor—an abnormal, uncontrolled growth within bodily tissue. Figuratively, poets use tumorous imagery to describe hidden evils, expanding corruption, or toxic secrets that swell unchecked within a character, community, or state. Students should analyze how tumorous imagery conveys a sense of invasive, self-generated destruction that feeds on its host, heightening themes of doom and internal rot. Related terms include swollen, neoplastic, turgid, and hypertrophic.
Also Known As
Tumoral Swollen Neoplastic Growth-Bearing tumid
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