myelitis

noun

my·​e·​li·​tis ˌmī-ə-ˈlī-təs 

plural myelitides ˌmī-ə-ˈli-tə-ˌdēz 

: inflammation of the spinal cord or of the bone marrow

Examples of myelitis in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

More news: World Series Champion Pitcher, Coach, Dies at 60 In 2008, Rafferty was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder that left him with no feeling below the waist. —Jon Paul Hoornstra, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 June 2025

Possible safety signals for transverse myelitis — spinal cord inflammation — after viral-vector vaccines was identified in the study. —Tribune News Service, Boston Herald, 20 Feb. 2024

Wen: Acute flaccid myelitis is a condition that has only recently been named, in 2014. —Faye Chiu, CNN, 23 Sep. 2024

There were three cases of transverse myelitis—a condition where there is spinal cord inflammation—in people who received the vaccine. —Anju Goel, Verywell Health, 9 May 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin (in German context), from Greek myelós "bone marrow" + New Latin -itis -itis — more at myelo-

Note: The word was apparently introduced by the German physician Christian Friedrich Harless (Harleß, in some of his publications Harles, 1773-1853) in "Valerian Aloys Brera über die Entzündung des Rückenmarks," Jahrbücher der teutschen Medicin und Chirurgie, 2. Band (1813), p. 244. Harless's essay purports to be a translation of "Della rachialgite - Cenni patologici" by the Italian physician Valeriano Luigi Brera (1772-1840), published in Atti dell'Accademia italiana di lettere, scienze, ed arti, tomo primo, parte prima, Livorno, 1810, pp. 247-76. Brera, however, uses only the word rachialgite for inflammation of the spinal chord, which Harless latinizes as Rhachialgitis. In a footnote introducing this word Harless adds: "Man könnte auch wohl, noch bezeichnender, für die Entzündung des Rückenmarks selbst den Namen Myelitis wählen, um so füglicher, weil μυελος bei Hippokrates, Galen, u.a. griech. Aertzen häufig ohne den Zusatz des Beiworts νωτιαιος (dorsalis) zur Bezeichnung des Rückenmarks gebraucht wird." ("One could as well also choose myelitis as a more aptly characterizing name for inflammation of the spinal marrow, the more justifiable because Hippocrates, Galen and other Greek physicians frequently used myelos without the addition of the modifying word nōtiaios (dorsalis [spinal]) as a designation for spinal marrow.")

First Known Use

1835, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing myelitis

• acute flaccid myelitis

Rhymes for myelitis

• adenitis
• arteritis
• blepharitis
• cervicitis
• cholangitis
• choroiditis
• decubitus
• dermatitis
• fasciitis
• gingivitis
• hepatitis
• iritis

Medical Definition

myelitis

noun

my·​e·​li·​tis ˌmī-ə-ˈlīt-əs 

plural myelitides -ˈlit-ə-ˌdēz 

: inflammation of the spinal cord or of the bone marrow

myelitic

-ˈlit-ik 

adjective