sequela

Learned borrowing from Latin sequēla (“aftermath, sequel; consequence, result”), from sequor (“to follow; to come or go after, pursue”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to follow”)) + -ēla (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs). Doublet of sequel.

The plural form is a learned borrowing from Latin sequēlae.

• Singular:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɪˈkwiːlə/, /-ˈkwɛ-/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • (General American) IPA^(key): /sɪˈkwɛlə/, /-ˈkwi-/
  • Rhymes: -iːlə, -ɛlə
  • Hyphenation: se‧que‧la
• Plural:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɪˈkwiːliː/, /-ˈkwɛ-/

  • Audio (Received Pronunciation):

    (file)

  • (General American) IPA^(key): /sɪˈkwɛliː/, /-ˈkwi-/
  • Hyphenation: se‧que‧lae

sequela (plural sequelae or (archaic) sequelæ)

1. (medicine) Chiefly in the plural: a condition or disease which follows chronologically after an earlier one, being either partly or wholly caused by it, or made possible by it.

   Coordinate terms: complication (sometimes synonymous); comorbidity (concomitant)

   • 1970, J G Ballard, “Princess Margaret’s Face Lift”, in The Atrocity Exhibition, revised edition, London: Flamingo, HarperCollinsPublishers, published 2001, →ISBN, page 178:

     Complications: haematoma formation is a dangerous sequela of this operation, and careful drainage with polythene tubing was carried out.

   • 1973, Patrick O’Brian, chapter 4, in H.M.S. Surprise, London: HarperCollinsPublishers for The Book People, →ISBN, page 69:

     ‘Ay, ay,’ said Stephen testily, ‘it is showy enough to look at, no doubt, but these are only the superficial sequelae. There is no essential lesion.’

   • 2023 December 11, Elizaveta Skarga, Heljä-Marja Surcel, Rudolf Kaaks, Tim Waterboer, Renée T Fortner, “Sexually Transmitted Infections and Risk of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: Results From the Finnish Maternity Cohort”, in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, volume 228, number 11, →DOI, pages 1621–1629:

     Although both acute PID and STIs may remain asymptomatic, some of their shared long-term sequelae are tubal factor infertility (TFI), salpingitis, and adhesions and scarring of the fallopian tubes, ovaries, and surrounding peritoneal tissue. These sequelae have been further identified as factors potentially associated with EOC risk.

2. (by extension, formal)
   1. That which follows; a consequence, an effect.
      • 2003, Roy Porter, “Dependent Bodies”, in Flesh in the Age of Reason, London: Allen Lane, Penguin Group, →ISBN, part IV (The Science of Man for a New Society), page 407:

        Initially he dosed himself to quell neuralgia associated with 'gout' and nervous shooting pains in the limb and head, unable to bear the agonies these complaints produced on what Humphry Davy would call his 'excessive sensibility'. Self-dosing brought emotional and physical sequelae of its own.

   2. (rare) People who adhere to the opinions or teachings of another; followers.

• sequel
• sequence

• comorbidity
• complication

• sequela on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “sequela”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• queleas

• IPA^(key): /seˈkwɛ.la/
• Rhymes: -ɛla
• Hyphenation: se‧què‧la

sequela f (plural sequele)

1. string, sequence, series, string
2. (pathology) sequela

From sequor (“I follow”) +‎ -ēla.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key):
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key):

sequēla f (genitive sequēlae); first declension

1. a result, consequence, sequel, aftermath
   • 303 CE – 311 CE, Lactantius, Institutiones Divinae 7.5:

     immortālitās nōn sequēla nātūrae, sed mercēs praemiumque virtūtis est.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. a suite, retinue, a group of followers
   • 1st century CE, Sextus Iunius Frontinus, Strategemata 2.4.8:

     M. Marcellus, cum verērētur, nē paucitātem mīlitum ejus clāmor dētegeret, simul lixās cālōnēsque et omnis generis sequēlās conclāmāre jussit atque hostem magnī exercitūs speciē exterruit.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

First-declension noun.

• “sequela”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• sequela in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• sequela in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung

• IPA^(key): /siˈkfɛ.la/
• Rhymes: -ɛla
• Syllabification: se‧que‧la

sequela

1. genitive singular of sequel

• seqüela (pre-1990 spelling)
• seqùela (pre-reform spelling)

Learned borrowing from Latin sequēla.

• Hyphenation: se‧que‧la

sequela f (plural sequelas)

1. (pathology) sequela (condition caused by an earlier disease or problem)
2. consequence; effect

   Synonyms: consequência, efeito

3. sequence; series; string

   Synonyms: série, sequência

4. (narratology) sequel (a following release in a series of films, books etc.)

   Synonyms: sequência, continuação

5. entourage (retinue of attendants, associates or followers)

   Synonym: séquito