viscera

IPA/ˈvɪsərə/
IPA/ˈvɪsərə/

viscera — noun

1. the main soft organs in the chest and belly, such as the heart, lungs, stomach,

1.nounC2
Definition

the main soft organs in the chest and belly, such as the heart, lungs, stomach, and intestines

Example

The fall from the horse badly damaged Beatriz's viscera.

medical use: damage the viscera

Surgeons checked whether the knife had reached the viscera.

pattern: reach the viscera

Common collocations
  • abdominal viscera
  • thoracic viscera
  • damage to the viscera
  • examine the viscera
Synonyms
  • internal organs

    the usual neutral term in everyday or non-specialist writing

  • entrails

    more strongly focused on the intestines and often more graphic or literary

  • guts

    an informal word that can mean the intestines or the stomach area

  • innards

    informal and vivid, often used for the inside parts of an animal or person

Grammar Patterns

damage the viscera

injury to the viscera

abdominal viscera

Usage Note

Usually plural and mostly found in medical, legal, or anatomical writing. In everyday English, people more often name the organ directly or say internal organs.

Common Mistakes

The surgeon removed one viscera after the blast.
The surgeon removed one organ after the blast.
viscera names the organs as a group, so one part is an organ, not 'one viscera'.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

In medical writing, viscera is the most formal group term for the organs inside the body, especially those in the chest and abdomen. Organs is broader and more neutral, and it is the usual word outside specialist contexts. Entrails points more strongly to the intestines and often sounds older, literary, or graphic. Guts is informal and may refer either to the bowels or to the stomach area in everyday speech. Innards is also informal and vivid, often used when talking about the inside parts of an animal, a person, or even a machine. A surgeon may write that an injury damaged the viscera, while a news report would more likely say it damaged the victim's internal organs.

organs ↗entrails ↗guts ↗innards ↗

Common collocations

Verbs

Phrases

  • damage to the viscera
  • injury to the viscera

Adjectives

Etymology

LatinEnglish

English borrowed viscera from Latin, where viscera was the plural form of viscus, meaning an internal organ or the flesh inside the body. Because it entered English as a learned medical borrowing, it still sounds formal and is usually treated as a fixed plural term.