Definition of "coma" []

• A state of deep, often prolonged unconsciousness, usually the result of injury, disease, or poison, in which an individual is incapable of sensing or responding to external stimuli and internal needs. (noun)
• Astronomy The nebulous luminescent cloud containing the nucleus and constituting the major portion of the head of a comet. (noun)
• Botany A usually terminal tuft or cluster, especially a tuft of hairs on a seed, as on a willow or milkseed. (noun)
• Physics A diffuse, comet-shaped image of a point source of light or radiation caused by aberration in the optical system. (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.

• "Second, a person in a coma is alive, but unconscious."
• "Writing this book, though, allowed me to imagine what that dynamic might be like and by placing his sister in a coma from the very beginning I figured I'd be giving an eighteen-year-old boy the opportunity to be reflective about that relationship in a way he otherwise wouldn't have had."
• "Hojer J, Baehrendtz S, Matell G, Gustaffson L. Diagnostic utility of flumazenil in coma with suspected poisoning: a double blind, randomized controlled study."