How to Pronounce Cholesteatoma

Cholesteatoma is pronounced koh-les-tee-ah-TOH-mah. Break it into six syllables: koh (sounds like 'co' in 'cold'), les (rhymes with 'mess'), tee (like the letter 'T'), ah (like the 'a' in 'father'), TOH (sounds like 'toe'), and mah (rhymes with 'ma'). The stress falls on the fourth syllable: TOH.

People often stress the wrong syllable and say koh-les-tee-ah-toh-MAH instead of koh-les-tee-ah-TOH-mah. Remember: the emphasis goes on TOH, not the last syllable mah.

Yes! Cholesteatoma comes from three Greek roots: 'chole' (meaning bile or cholesterol), 'steat' (meaning fat or fatty), and 'oma' (meaning tumor or abnormal growth). So the word literally translates to 'fatty growth,' even though it's actually made of skin cells, not fat.

'Oma' is a suffix (an ending) that comes from Greek and means a tumor or abnormal growth. You'll see it in many medical words like melanoma, carcinoma, and lymphoma—all of which refer to growths of some kind.

Doctors sometimes just call it a 'cholesteatoma' without shortening it, but in writing you might see it abbreviated as 'CSOM' when it appears with chronic suppurative otitis media. However, the full word cholesteatoma is most common in everyday medical language.

A cholesteatoma is an abnormal pocket or cyst of skin cells that grows inside the middle ear. Think of it as an unwanted growth that forms in a small space deep inside your ear.

Here's an example: 'The audiologist explained that the patient had a cholesteatoma, which is why they were having trouble hearing.' This sentence shows how the word is used when discussing the condition with others.

Many conditions use the 'oma' ending because it means growth or tumor. Examples include melanoma (a type of skin growth), lymphoma (a growth in the lymph system), and carcinoma (a cancerous growth). All of these words tell you that something abnormal is growing in the body.