Definition of "hepatitis" []

• Inflammation of the liver, caused by infectious or toxic agents and characterized by jaundice, fever, liver enlargement, and abdominal pain. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Hepar is Greek for “liver,” and the word hepatitis literally means “inflammation of the liver,” just as tonsillitis means “inflammation of the tonsils” and arthritis means “inflammation of the joints.”"
• "As I noted in chapter 3, the word hepatitis means “inflammation of the liver.”"
• "By the early 1970s, working with a team of collaborators, his lab had purified particles of a new virus, which he called hepatitis B virus, or HBV."