Definition of "symptom" []

• A characteristic sign or indication of the existence of something else: "The affair is a symptom of a global marital disturbance; it is not the disturbance itself” ( Maggie Scarf). See Synonyms at sign. (noun)
• A sign or an indication of disorder or disease, especially when experienced by an individual as a change from normal function, sensation, or appearance. (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.

• "The word "symptom" comes from a Greek word meaning "accident, misfortune, that which befalls": certainly an unhealthy attitude toward a choice that can be the most joyous event of a person's life."
• ""The main symptom is that you just can't sustain the activity you're doing," explains Howard Backer, M.D., past president of the Wilderness Medical Society and an expert on environmental heat illnesses."
• "The symptoms you describe sound like Dengue II since the main symptom is bleeding, both internal and external from the eyes, nose, etc."