ultrasound

From ultra- +‎ sound.

ultrasound (countable and uncountable, plural ultrasounds)

2. (physics) Sound with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing, which is approximately 20 kilohertz.

   Antonym: infrasound

   Hypernym: sound

4. (metonymic, chiefly informal) Ultrasonography.
   2. Medical ultrasonography.
5. Therapeutically applied ultrasonic energy.
   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

     Ultrasound as a treatment for degenerative arthritis was in its infancy. It might eventually turn out to be as effective as the Salk vaccine, or as bogus as the science of phrenology.

   • 2007 December 3, Christy Lemire, “Review: "Juno" A Small Comic Charmer”, in CBS News‎^[1]:

     But after a few visits to share details about ultrasounds and such, Juno and Mark find they have similar interests in music and movies - and Juno does have extraordinary tastes for someone her age, from the songs of Iggy and the Stooges to the horror flicks of Dario Argento.

   • 2018 January 18, Jürgen Götz, “Why it’s so hard to treat dementia”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     It’s estimated only 0.1% of antibodies circulating in the bloodstream enter the brain – this also includes the therapeutic antibodies currently used in clinical trials. An approach my team is taking is to use ultrasound to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier, which increases the uptake of Alzheimer’s drugs or antibody fragments.

• ultrasonic, ultrasonics

ultrasound (third-person singular simple present ultrasounds, present participle ultrasounding, simple past and past participle ultrasounded)

1. (ambitransitive) To treat with ultrasound.

• ultrasonicate

• undulators