Definition of "myelitis" [‖My•e•li•tis]

• Inflammation of the spinal column. (noun)
• Osteomyelitis. (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.

• "Near the end of a trip to spring training to cover the Cardinals, Fallstrom experienced numbness in his arms and legs and was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, which is inflammation of the spinal cord."
• "# -- The term "myelitis" is applied to certain changes which occur in the spinal cord as a result, for example, of hæmorrhage into its substance (_hæmorrhagic myelitis_); or of pressure exerted on it by fragments of bone, blood-clot, tuberculous material, or new growths (_compression myelitis_)."
• "The word "myelitis" refers to inflammation of the insulating material that covers nerve cell fibers (myelin), and "transverse" means the inflammation occurs across the width of your spinal cord."