Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- any of several X-linked genetic disorders, symptomatic chiefly in males, in which excessive bleeding occurs owing to the absence or abnormality of a clotting factor in the blood.
1854 (in anglicized form hæmophily), from German hämophile, coined 1828 by German physician Johann Lucas Schönlein (1793-1864), from Greek haima “blood” (see -emia) + philia “to love” (see -philia), here with a sense of “tendency to.”
n.
- Any of several hereditary blood-coagulation disorders, manifested almost exclusively in males, in which the blood fails to clot normally because of a deficiency or an abnormality of one of the clotting factors.
- Any of several hereditary coagulation disorders, seen almost exclusively in males, in which the blood fails to clot normally because of a deficiency or an abnormality of one of the clotting factors.
A hereditary disease caused by a deficiency of a substance in the blood that aids in clotting. Hemophiliacs can bleed to death even from small cuts and bruises, because their blood has largely lost the ability to clot.