tophus
noun
Forms tophi
- noun (medicine) A deposit of monosodium urate crystals in the body, caused by high levels of uric acid in the blood.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Latin tophus (“stone”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun One of the mineral concretions about the joints, and in other situations, occurring chiefly in gouty persons. They consist usually of urate of sodium; when occurring in the internal organs they are also composed of phosphate of calcium.
- noun Calcareous tufa.
Etymology [NL.: cf. F. tophus a mineral concretion in the joint. See Toph.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tophus”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details