CFS
4 synonyms for CFS, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — Chronic fatigue syndrome: a long-term illness whose central feature is severe exhaustion that is not relieved by rest and worsens after physical or mental exertion, usually accompanied by unrefreshing sleep, pain and difficulty concentrating.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
myalgic encephalomyelitis
ME/CFS
chronic fatigue syndrome
How to use CFS
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
diagnosed with CFS
ME/CFS
living with CFS
peak flow in cfs
Written uppercase for the illness, lowercase cfs for the flow unit.
Etymology
An initialism; the expansion depends on context, most commonly chronic fatigue syndrome or cubic feet per second.
Full origin of CFS →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between CFS and ME?
They largely describe the same illness under different names. ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) is the older term and is preferred by many patients because chronic fatigue syndrome sounds like ordinary tiredness. Health services increasingly write ME/CFS to cover both.
Is CFS the same as being tired all the time?
No. The defining feature is post-exertional malaise — a disproportionate crash in the hours or days after activity that ordinary rest does not fix. Ordinary tiredness improves with sleep; CFS characteristically does not.
What does cfs mean in measurements of water?
Cubic feet per second, the volume of water passing a point each second. It is the standard unit for river flow and dam discharge in the United States; metric countries use cubic metres per second instead.
