petit mal

Questions about petit mal

What does petit mal mean?

petit mal means "epilepsy characterized by paroxysmal attacks of brief clouding of consciousness (and possibly other abnormalities)". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for petit mal?

Close synonyms include petit mal epilepsy, epilepsia minor, epilepsia minor. 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 petit mal a common word?

petit mal is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.