as in disability
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Recent Examples of spastic paralysis
Over the past couple of months, Lizzo and Beyoncé were both called out for their use of a word that is considered a slur in the disability community that refers to people with spastic paralysis or cerebral palsy.
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Lisa Deaderick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Aug. 2022
Lisa Deaderick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Aug. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spastic paralysis
Noun
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On one hand, Davidson’s disability is the inspiration for I Swear; the film’s star, Robert Aramayo, won the BAFTA rising-star award on Sunday as well as the lead-actor prize over front-runners Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio.—
John Ross,
Vanity Fair,
23 Feb. 2026
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Jeopardizing government benefits Research shows that mutual aid disproportionately supports low-income households, undocumented families, people with disabilities and communities of color.—
Pamala Wiepking,
The Conversation,
23 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Brandt also notes that subjective cognitive impairment — the participants’ personal sense of changes in their memory, attention, visual and spatial cognition, and executive function — was the focus of the study.—
Tom Gavin,
EverydayHealth.com,
23 Feb. 2026
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The driver remained at the scene to cooperate with the LBPD investigation, police said, noting that speed, distracted driving and impairment did not appear to be factors.—
Dean Fioresi,
CBS News,
21 Feb. 2026
Noun
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About a third experience some form of aura beforehand, often accompanied by debilitating symptoms from vomiting to vertigo, or, in worse cases, temporary blindness or hemiplegia, a paralysis down one side of the body.—
Matthew Ponsford,
WIRED,
19 Sep. 2024
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Related article Gaza’s chessboard of suffering: Tens of thousands on the move again as IDF issues new evacuation orders Julia suffers from a rare neurological disorder called alternating hemiplegia of childhood, or AHC.—
Nadeen Ebrahim,
CNN,
10 July 2024
Noun
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Two of the rats were paralyzed and unable to reach food or water, and a third had paresis and had trouble moving.—
Rob O'Dell,
The Arizona Republic,
23 June 2021
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After she was diagnosed with paresis, Ms. Dhegrae threw herself into research, spending up to 20 hours a day trawling through scientific journals and poring over her own medical history.—
New York Times,
New York Times,
21 Nov. 2019
Noun
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In collaboration with Fudan University’s Huashan Hospital, researchers enabled a patient with high-level paraplegia to control a smart wheelchair and a robotic dog.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
31 Dec. 2025
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Togolese soccer star, Samuel Asamoah, is at risk of paraplegia after breaking his neck during a mid-game collision with an advertising board in China.—
Becca Longmire,
PEOPLE,
10 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Neuralink top officials’ public rhetoric about machine-human symbiosis and healthy human implantation diverges sharply from the company’s clinical work helping people with ALS and quadriplegia control a computer with their mind.—
O. Rose Broderick,
STAT,
5 Jan. 2026
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Neuralink is currently running a clinical program dubbed Prime, which is seeking to enroll patients 22 years old and up, who have quadriplegia and are willing to have a 1,024-electrode chip, about the size of a quarter, implanted for a study expected to last six years.—
Jeffrey Kluger,
Time,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Since emerging from a coma after the crash, Dalilah Coleman has been recovering but is nonverbal and has diplegic cerebral palsy, her family has said.—
Jennifer Jacobs,
CBS News,
24 Feb. 2026
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Given that bed rest studies have been used to simulate the effects of microgravity, people born with cerebral palsy can give us some sense of how a child’s body might be affected by partial gravity.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
20 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Walker was diagnosed with a rare form of cerebral palsy (spastic diplegia) at 18 months, forcing him to wear leg braces throughout his childhood.—
McKinley Franklin,
Variety,
13 Sep. 2023
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Spastic diplegia primarily involves the legs, often causing stiff hip and leg muscles.—
Lauren Sieben,
SELF,
22 Mar. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Spastic paralysis.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spastic%20paralysis. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.
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