hirudo medicinalis

1. 1.

   large European freshwater leech formerly used for bloodletting

   Synonymsmedicinal leech

   Broaderleech

   Part ofHirudo

Questions about hirudo medicinalis

What does hirudo medicinalis mean?

hirudo medicinalis means "large European freshwater leech formerly used for bloodletting".

What is another word for hirudo medicinalis?

Close synonyms include medicinal leech. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is hirudo medicinalis a common word?

hirudo medicinalis is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.