Nausea is a noun describing a sensation of stomach discomfort and an urge to vomit. It can also refer to a feeling of queasiness or sickness, often accompanying motion sickness or medical conditions. The term emphasizes a subjective bodily state rather than a specific cause and is commonly used in clinical and everyday contexts.
"Her morning ride gave her a nasty wave of nausea."
"The patient reported nausea but no vomiting."
"Nausea can be an early symptom of dehydration or infection."
"He felt a creeping nausea as the roller coaster climbed to the peak."
The word nausea comes from the Latin word nausea, which means seasickness or seasickness-like feeling, from navis ‘ship’ and the suffix -ea indicating a state or condition. The Latin term entered English in the late Middle Ages through medical Latin usage, reflecting the shift from nautical to general malaise symbolism. Early medical writers used nausea to describe the ill feeling that accompanies vomiting, and by the 17th century it had become a standard clinical term. Over time, its usage broadened to include any queasiness or impending vomiting, not limited to seaworthiness. The core meaning settled around an uneasy sensation of the stomach or a desire to vomit, and in modern usage, nausea is a common symptom across many medical conditions, medications, and everyday experiences like motion sickness or anxiety. First known English attestations appear in medical texts from the 1500s onward, with later pharmacopoeias and dictionaries consolidating its meaning as a defined symptom rather than a mere metaphor for discomfort.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Nausea" and can often be used interchangeably.
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Words that rhyme with "Nausea"
-ure sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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US/UK/AU pronunciation centers the stressed first syllable: /ˈnɔː.zi.ə/ (US: /ˈnɔː.zi.ə/, UK: /ˈnɔːz.jə/). Start with an open back rounded vowel in the first syllable, then a voiced z sound before the final schwa and a light final vowel. The middle syllable often reduces to zhi- or zhə, depending on dialect. Think “NAW-zhee-uh” with careful /ˈnɔː/ onset and a clear /z/ before the final /ə/.
Common errors include mixing the /ɔː/ with /æ/ in the first syllable (saying /ˈnæ.si.ə/), dropping the /z/ or turning it into /s/ (nause-uh pronounced as /ˈnɔːsiə/), and misplacing stress or reducing the final syllable too aggressively. Correct by ensuring /nɔː/ is your strong first syllable, keeping /z/ before the final vowel, and pronouncing the final /ə/ or /ə/ as a light schwa. Use minimal pairs to train subtle vowel length and voicing.
US tends to have a clear /ˈnɔːziə/ with a slightly drier vowel and pronounced /z/ before a reduced final /ə/. UK often articulates /ˈnɔːz.jə/ with a smoother /j/ glide into the final /ə/ and may have less vowel rounding. Australian typically merges syllables more, approaching /ˈnɔːzjə/ with a slightly more centralized vowel in non-rhotic contexts. The presence or absence of rhoticity and the strength of the second syllable vowels vary by speaker and region.
The difficulty lies in the consonant cluster at the start (/n/ + /ɔː/ vowel+ /z/), the nuance of /z/ versus /zh/ in some speakers, and the final schwa in rapid speech. Learners often misplace stress or blur the middle /z/ with /s/, leading to /nɔːsiə/ or /ˈnæzjə/. The key is keeping the second syllable distinct and ensuring the /z/ is voiced, followed by a subtle /ə/ or /a/ in the final syllable. IPA anchors and mouth position cues help stabilize these transitions.
The /z/ serves as a voiced alveolar fricative that anchors the middle syllable. In some accents, the /z/ can be realized closer to /ʒ/ (as in measure) in rapid speech, but careful articulation preserves a clear /z/ before the final vowel. Practice by holding the /z/ briefly, then easing into the final /jə/ or /yə/ glide depending on the dialect. This ensures perceptual clarity between the first and last syllables and avoids a clipped or sibilant-only effect.
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