Make Your Editor Cry: Diagnosis (Awkward Plural)

Make Your Editor Cry: Diagnosis (Awkward Plural)

BLUF: (Bottom Line Up Front)
The plural of diagnosis is diagnoses.

diagnosis: the art or act of identifying a disease from its signs and symptoms

The singular form of diagnosis is diagnosis. The plural of diagnosis is diagnoses. The noun diagnosis has a Greek root, which is the derivation of the plural diagnoses. There is no alternative English plural form. The noun diagnosis conforms to the standard rules for forming the plurals of nouns in English.

Hippocrates was known to make diagnoses by smelling his patients' sweat.
In a differential diagnosis, a physician rules out the diagnoses until a final determination can be made.

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