dystocia

noun

dys·​to·​cia dis-ˈtō-sh(ē-)ə 

: slow or difficult labor or delivery

Examples of dystocia in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Qing Yuan made his way to the shower, thinking again of the woman who had died of dystocia, her boy stillborn, dead. —Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2025

When there is a shoulder dystocia, there are tried and true things that must be done. —Pilar Arias, Fox News, 8 Feb. 2024

Complications like shoulder dystocia are rare in obstetrics. —Adam Wolfberg, The Atlantic, 26 May 2017

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, borrowed from Greek dystokía, from dys- dys- + tókos "childbirth, act of giving birth (of animals), offspring" + -ia -ia entry 1; tókos nominal ablaut derivative of tíktō, tíktein, aorist étekon, tekeîn "to give birth to, beget, generate," probably going back to Indo-European *teḱ- "generate, give birth to," base of the aorist stem *tetḱ- "generate, produce" — more at tectonic

Note: According to Helmut Rix, et al., Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2. Ausgabe (Wiesbaden, 2001), *te-tḱ- represents a pre-Indo-European reduplicated aorist from which *teḱ- was in effect back-derived. Other than Greek, there appears to be no evidence for *teḱ- as a simple verb, and the supposed connection of the nominal derivative téknon "child, young of an animal" with Germanic *þegna- "servant, retainer of a lord" has been seriously questioned (see thane).

First Known Use

circa 1706, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for dystocia

• sclerotia
• xhosa

Medical Definition

dystocia

noun

dys·​to·​cia dis-ˈtō-sh(ē-)ə 

variants or dystokia

-ˈtō-kē-ə 

: slow or difficult labor or delivery compare eutocia