Word meanings

There are so many new words you might hear your grown-ups say. It can help it know what they mean.

A - C

  • Advanced cancer

    Cancer that is unlikely to be cured so the person will die.

  • Bereaved

    When someone you love dies, you are “bereaved”.

  • Bereavement

    The time it takes for somebody to grieve (which is different for everybody).

  • Burial

    The dead person is put in a coffin and buried underground in the soil.

  • Cancer tumour

    A growth or lump, which is made up of cancer cells.

  • Chemotherapy

    Special medicines to help a person with cancer.

  • Carer

    A family member or close friend who looks after a sick person and makes sure they have everything they need.

  • Cemetery

    A place where the coffin is buried in the ground.

  • Coffin

    A wooden box with a lid that the dead person is put in.

  • Cremation

    The dead person is put in a coffin and turned into powdery ash using heat. People can either keep the ashes, or scatter them in a place special to the person who has died.

D - H

  • Diagnosis

    Knowing the type of sickness or disease a person has.

  • Drowsy

    Means a person is feeling sleepy.

  • Dead

    When a person stops breathing, their heart stops beating and they are no longer living. They cannot feel, see, hear or come back alive.

  • Dying

    When a person’s body begins to not work properly meaning they will not live.

  • End of life care

    The care given by the palliative care team where a person is very close to death.

  • Fatigue

    Feeling very very tired even when you have woken up from a big sleep.

  • Funeral

    A special time for family and friends to get together to celebrate the life of a loved one.

  • Grave

    The hole in the soil where the coffin goes when someone is buried.

  • Grief

    Grief is your own mixture of feelings and thoughts that you experience when someone you love is dying or dies.

  • Hospice

    A place that helps people who have an illness that will not get better. People can go in for a short time to help with their sickness or to give their families a break. Some people choose to die there.

I - O

  • IV drip or drip

    A tiny tube that a doctor or nurse will put into a person’s arm or hand so medicines can get inside that person’s body quickly.

  • Life limiting illness

    An illness that is unlikely to be cured and meaning the person to die at some stage. A person may live with a life limiting illness for weeks, months or years.

  • Loss

    Being without something that you love.

  • Morphine

    Very strong medicines to take away any pain a person is feeling.

  • Mourning

    Mourning is the way you show your grief.

  • Metastasis

    Metastasis means the cancer has spread from one part of the body to another part of the body (also called ‘secondary cancer’).

  • Oncology

    Oncology means cancer. Oncologist = cancer doctor, Oncology Ward = hospital word for people with cancer.

P - U

  • Painkiller

    Medicines that doctors and nurses give people to take away any feelings of pain.

  • Palliative care

    The special kind of care given to people who have an illness that can’t be cured.

  • Palliative care team

    A team people who look after people who have life limiting illness.

  • Post mortem

    A doctor looks at the dead body to work out how they died.

  • Pre-bereavement

    The time before a loved one has died and people are feeling grief.

  • Prognosis

    Information given by doctors about what is going to happen to a person with an illness.

  • Relapse

    Relapse means the cancer has come back in the person’s body.

  • Respite care

    The care given by nurses so families caring for a sick person can have a short break. It can be given in a hospital, hospice or at home.

  • Symptoms

    Signs of an illness, like pain, or feeling sick.

  • Terminal

    When a person who has cancer that cannot be treated and their body begins to stop working which means they will die.

  • Urn

    A pot the ashes are kept in after someone has been cremated.