birth defect

birth defect

n.

A physiological or structural abnormality that develops at or before birth and is present at the time of birth, especially as a result of faulty development, infection, heredity, or injury. Also called congenital anomaly.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

birth defect - a defect that is present at birth congenital abnormality, congenital anomaly, congenital defect, congenital disorder ablepharia - a congenital absence of eyelids (partial or complete) albinism - the congenital absence of pigmentation in the eyes and skin and hair anencephalia, anencephaly - a defect in brain development resulting in small or missing brain hemispheres ametria - congenital absence of the uterus color blindness, color vision deficiency, colour blindness, colour vision deficiency - genetic inability to distinguish differences in hue epispadias - a congenital abnormality in males in which the urethra is on the upper surface of the penis clinocephalism, clinocephaly - a congenital defect in which the top of the head is depressed (concave instead of convex) clinodactyly - a congenital defect in which one or more toes or fingers are abnormally positioned macroglossia - a congenital disorder characterized by an abnormally large tongue; often seen in cases of Down's syndrome Down syndrome, Down's syndrome, mongolianism, mongolism, trisomy 21 - a congenital disorder caused by having an extra 21st chromosome; results in a flat face and short stature and mental retardation acrocephaly, oxycephaly - a congenital abnormality of the skull; the top of the skull assumes a cone shape cheiloschisis, cleft lip, harelip - a congenital cleft in the middle of the upper lip cleft palate - a congenital fissure of the hard palate defect - an imperfection in a bodily system; "visual defects"; "this device permits detection of defects in the lungs" amelia - congenital absence of an arm or leg meromelia - congenital absence of part of an arm or leg encephalocele - protrusion of brain tissue through a congenital fissure in the skull meningocele - a congenital anomaly of the central nervous system in which a sac protruding from the brain or the spinal meninges contains cerebrospinal fluid (but no nerve tissue) myelomeningocele - a congenital defect of the central nervous system in which a sac containing part of the spinal cord and its meninges protrude through a gap in the vertebral column; frequently accompanied by hydrocephalus and mental retardation plagiocephaly - congenital malformation of the skull in which the main axis of the skull is oblique polysomy - congenital defect of having one or more extra chromosomes in somatic cells hermaphrodism, hermaphroditism - congenital condition in which external genitalia and internal sex organs have both male and female characteristics pseudohermaphroditism - congenital condition in which a person has external genitalia of one sex and internal sex organs of the other sex scaphocephaly - congenital malformation of the skull which is long and narrow; frequently accompanied by mental retardation congenital heart defect - a birth defect involving the heart rachischisis, schistorrhachis, spina bifida - a not uncommon congenital defect in which a vertebra is malformed; unless several vertebrae are affected or there is myelomeningocele there are few symptoms; can be diagnosed by amniocentesis spinocerebellar disorder - any of several congenital disorders marked by degeneration of the cerebellum and spinal cord resulting in spasticity and ataxia hyperdactyly, polydactyly - birth defect characterized by the presence of more than the normal number of fingers or toes syndactylism, syndactyly - birth defect in which there is partial or total webbing connecting two or more fingers or toes ankyloglossia, tongue tie - a congenital anomaly in which the mucous membrane under the tongue is too short limiting the mobility of the tongue anomalousness, anomaly - deviation from the normal or common order or form or rule