Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definitions: Cataract |
CataractNoun1. Clouding of the natural lens of the eye. 2. A steep descent of the water of a river. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "cataract" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Cataract \Cat"a*ract\, noun. [Latin expression cataracta, catarracles, waterfall, Greek expression from to break down; in the passive, to fall or rush down (of tumors) to burst; kata` down to break.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Health | An opacity, partial or complete, of one or both eyes, on or in the lens or capsule, especially an opacity impairing vision or causing blindness. The many kinds of cataract are classified by their morphology (size, shape, location) or etiology (cause and time of occurrence). (references) |
Medicine | A loss of transparency of the lens of the eye or of its capsule. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: CataractSynonyms: cascade (n), falls (n), waterfall (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
River | Water spout, water fall; cascade, force, foss; lin, linn; ghyll, Niagara; cataract, rapids, white water, catadupe, cataclysm; debacle, inundation, deluge; chute, washout. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
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Periodicals |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
Cataract Creek.Credit: Unknown. | ![]() | A scene as it might be viewed by a person with cataract. .Credit: National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health. | |
![]() | The health worker skillfully administers a local anaesthetic which will ensure ... cataract operation is painless. / WHO p.Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by N. Willard.. | ![]() | In the ophthalmological hospital of Sitapur, India, up to 200 patients ... a day in the cataract season. / WHO p.Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by T. Satyan.. |
![]() | The surgical instrument used here for a cataract operation ... is known as a cryoprobe ... / WHO p.Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by P. Larsen.. | ![]() | Instruments for Couching and the Extraction of the Cataract. / H. Anderson sc.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
![]() | [Instruments for cataract removal].Credit: National Library of Medicine. | ![]() | Views in Arizona. Grand Canon, mouth of Cataract Creek, looking down.Credit: Library of Congress. |
![]() | Havasupai Indian school, Cataract Canyon.Credit: Library of Congress. | ![]() | Falls of the Cataract Canon, Arizona.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | He suffered the strange pangs of a conscience suddenly operated upon for the cataract. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | There are two primary ways to remove a cataract. (references) | |
Today, cataract surgery is safe and very effective. (references) | ||
In its early stages, a cataract may not cause a problem. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Cataract" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 95.59% of the time. "Cataract" is used about 68 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 95.59% | 65 | 41,645 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 1.47% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 1.47% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.47% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 68 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "cataract": capsular cataract ♦ cataract bird ♦ Cataract Extraction ♦ cataract lenses ♦ ergot cataract ♦ glass blower's cataract ♦ glass worker's cataract ♦ glassblower's cataract ♦ Hague cataract lamp ♦ iron puddler's cataract ♦ presenile cataract with flat dimness ♦ radiant energy cataract. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "cataract": cataract-eyes. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "cataract"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | ujëvarë (cascade, chute, fall, Linn, water power, waterfall), perde (albugo, cloak, coulisse, curtain, curtains, drape, drapery, mist, opacity, proscenium, purdah, screen, shroud, veil), katarakt (albugo). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | طوفان (cataclysm, deluge, downfall, flood), السد إعتمام عدسة العين, إعتام عدسة الصين, شلال (chute, falls, waterfall). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | регулатор (comptroller, controller, governor, moderator, register, regulator, timer), катаракт, водопад (chute, fall, falls, waterfall), проливен дъжд (drench, drencher, pelt, pour, soaker), перде на очите, перде (curtain, drapery, mist, veil, walleye). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 白內障 , 翳眼 , 洪流 , 大瀑布. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | vodopád (waterfall, water-fall), šedý zákal. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | katarakt, kataract, graa staer, grå stær (cataracts). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | staar, grote waterval, cataract. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | katarakto. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Faeroese | eygnastar. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | ابشاربزرگ . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | vesiputous (cascade, falls, waterfall), kaihi (glaucoma). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | cataracte (cataracts). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | katarakt (cataracts), grauer star, Wasserfall (cascade, fall, waterfall). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | καταρράκτης (cascade, waterfall). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מפל מים (cascade, fall, waterfall), אש" (cascade, chute, rapid, waterfall). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | vízesés (cascade, chute, fall, falls, waterfall), zuhatag (cascade, chute, falls, race, rapid, rapids, torrent), hályog (scale). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | penderasan (rapids), jeram (cold compress, rapids), air terjun (chute, waterfall). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | cataratta (cataracts). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 白内障 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | はくないしょう. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 백내장. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | lhieggey (bowl over, chop down, demolish, dismount, downfall, drop, fall, fall down, fell, fire, hew, overbalance, overflow, pick off, pull down, run over, spill, strike, striking, throw, topple, tumble, weigh down), eas (cascade, chute, shoot, waterfall), bodjal sooilley. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ataractcay catarata (overfall, waterfall). (various references) cataractã (web eye), cascadã mare, potop (cataclysm, cloud, debacle, deluge, destruction, flood, flux, freshet, ravage, sea, stack, stream), albeaţã (albedo, wall eye, white). (various references) катаракта. (various references) eas (a waterfall, cascade, waterfall). (various references) mrena na oku, katarakta. (various references) catarata (cataracts). (various references) stort vattenfall, grå starr. (various references) น้ำตกที่สูงชัน, ต้อ. (various references) sel (deluge, flood, flooding, inundation, spate, stream, torrent), perde (act, cloak, curtain, drop, episode, fret, incident, key, pitch, screen, tone, veil, web, webbed), katarakt, şelâle (cascade, fall, waterfall), çağlayan (cascade, chute, fall, waterfall). (various references) сильна злива, фонтан (fountain), катаракта, водоспад (falls, shoot, waterfall), опускні грати (portcullis), поріг (altar, apron, door step, riffle, sill, sole, threshold), потік (avalanche, current, deluge, downpour, flood, flow, outpour, rain, river, spate, splurge, torrent), демпфер (damper). (various references) cái hãm (brake, retainer), máy hãm (catch, caught). (various references) sgwd (waterfall), rhaeadr (waterfall), pistyll (spout), pilen (film, membrane). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | glaukoma, katarhaktes. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | cataracta. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "cataract": cataractous, cataracts. (additional references) | |
| |
"Cataract" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: cartaract, catacrat, catalac, catanach, cataora, cataratie, catarect, catatract, cateract, Catharacta, Citaristi, ctaract, ctgaacat, Datatrak, Katara. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "cataract" (pronounced ka"terakts) |
| 4 | -a k t s | abstracts, subcompacts. |
| 3 | -k t s | abducts, acts, addicts, adjuncts, affects, afflicts, aftereffects, aqueducts, architects, artifacts, aspects, attracts, byproducts, cataracts, collects, compacts, conducts, conflicts, connects, constructs, contacts, contracts, contradicts, convicts, corrects, deducts, defects, deflects, depicts, derelicts, destructs, detects, detracts, dialects, directs, disrespects, dissects, distracts, districts, ducts, edicts, effects, elects, enacts, erects, exacts, expects, extracts, facts, impacts, infects, inflicts, injects, insects, inspects, instincts, instructs, intellects, interacts, interjects, intersects, neglects, objects, pacts, precincts, predicts, products, projects, prospects, protects, reacts, recollects, reconnects, reenacts, reflects, rejects, respects, restricts, retracts, sects, selects, subcontracts, subjects, suspects, tracts, verdicts, viaducts. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-a-c-c-r-t-t" | |
-3 letters: attar, carat, tatar, tract. | |
-4 letters: acta, caca, cart, tact, tart. | |
-5 letters: act, arc, art, att, car, cat, rat, tar, tat. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-a-c-c-r-t-t" | |
+1 letter: ataractic, cataracts. | |
+2 letters: ataractics, paratactic. | |
+3 letters: attractance, attractancy, cataractous. | |
+4 letters: attractances, autocratical, paratactical. | |
+5 letters: attractancies, extragalactic, intragalactic. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)43 61 74 61 72 61 63 74 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)-.-. .- - .- .-. .- -.-. - |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000011 01100001 01110100 01100001 01110010 01100001 01100011 01110100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)C a t a r a c t |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0043 0061 0074 0061 0072 0061 0063 0074 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)3767866784676986 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Orthography 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.