Definition of "anthracosis" [an•thra•co•sis]

• See black lung. (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.

• "Early stages of the disease are known as anthracosis, which is a slow-acting, chronic disease that takes one or two decades to cause symptoms, but its effects can be severely disabling, causing pulmonary emphysema or chronic bronchitis."
• "Other health hazards specific to underground coal mining include coal dust, which can cause ‘coal worker’s pneumoconiosis’ or anthracosis, often combined with silicosis."
• "Very minute, inorganic foreign bodies may become encysted as in anthracosis."