Make Your Point: GANGRENOUS

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pronounce GANGRENOUS:

GANG gren us

connect this word to others:

Let's save the word gangrenous for the most vile, most destructive, most corrosive things we can think of.

If you're describing something that's not quite so vile, destructive, or corrosive, but you still want to connote disease, you could pick the word ul___ous instead. Can you recall that one? It means "causing so much stress or pain that it reminds you of a sore in the stomach."

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

Don't quote me on this, because I'm not a doctor. Gangrene is basically tissue death in the body. It's a terrible condition that can lead to the person's death.

You can quote me on this next part! The word "gangrene" traces back through Latin to a Greek word, gangraina, meaning "a sore that eats away (at you)."

In a literal sense, gangrenous wounds or limbs are affected by gangrene.

And in a figurative sense, gangrenous things are either colored a nasty deathly shade, like yellow or green or black; or, they're rotten and diseased and dying, eating away at the life of otherwise healthy things.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "The clouds turned a gangrenous black;" "I'm terrified of their gangrenous influence."

Other forms:

"Gangrene" is the noun for the condition, as in "The nation itself seemed sick with gangrene."

"Gangrene" is very rarely a verb, but some writers do use it that way, generally as a past participle, as in "suburbs gangrened by criminality" (Marine Le Pen).

how to use it:

"Gangrenous" is easy to understand and rare enough to really catch your listener's attention.

Pick it when you need to strike a highly dramatic tone as you emphasize the danger and destruction caused by some awful influence.

The basic metaphor here is that some group of people or some sphere of activity is like a single body, and the gangrenous influence or effect is bringing disease and death to it. So, talk about the gangrenous spread of something bad, or refer to that bad thing as a gangrenous limb.

examples:

"Her hair was a knot of greasy filth, her teeth a gangrenous yellow, her breath a reek of garbage."
— Richard Stern, Packages, 1980

"When they try to fit 4 pickleball courts on one tennis court, they are really trying to tell you, the worker, that you can never hope for more tennis courts, you can never hope for more opportunities for leisure, you can never hope for a richer, non-commodified collective life... We pledge to not only oppose the gangrenous spread of pickleball at every turn, but to promote our positive program."
— Club Leftist Tennis, Against Pickleball: A Club Leftist Tennis Manifesto, 23 February 2022

has this page helped you understand "gangrenous"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "gangrenous" without saying "rotting" or "putrefying."

try it out:

In her journal, Sylvia Plath wrote about feeling "festered resentments and gangrenous jealousies."

Try to explain what she probably meant. How can jealousies be "gangrenous;" what does that mean? How are "gangrenous" feelings just a bit worse than "festered" ones? Any ideas for how to cure them?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for August is "Degrees of Venndom."

I'll give you a pair of terms, and you decide how Venn-diagrammable they are. It's harder than it sounds! To see my suggested answer, scroll all the way down. Your response doesn't need to match mine; you should just be able to defend yours.

Try this today: At what degree of Venndom do CRISP and CRISPY exist?

4th degree: these terms never overlap, like DOG and CAT.

3rd degree: these terms are nested, with one term always the other but not vice versa, like KITTEN and CAT.

2nd degree: these terms sometimes overlap, like PET and MAMMAL.

1st degree: these terms always overlap, like CAT and FELINE.

review this word:

1. Near opposites of GANGRENOUS are

A. SOLO and ALOOF.
B. LIVING and HEALTHY.
C. BENIGN and METASTASIZING.

2. To stick to the gangrene metaphor, you might say that a small group of religious extremists is a gangrenous _____ of their faith.

A. leaf on the tree
B. hole in the ship
C. finger on the body

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > GANGRENOUS

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