symptom
n. countablen. a physical or mental change that shows you have a particular illness. It can also be a sign that a larger problem exists in a situation.
n. a physical or mental feature which is regarded as indicating a condition of disease, particularly such a feature that is apparent to the patient. In a broader sense, it refers to a sign of the existence of something undesirable.
A high fever is a common symptom of the flu.
The doctor asked her to describe every symptom she had experienced since the headache began on Monday.
While the sudden drop in stock prices was alarming, economists argued it was merely a symptom of deeper structural weaknesses within the global banking system.
From Ancient Greek σύμπτωμα (súmptōma, “a happening, accident, symptom of disease”), from stem of συμπίπτω (sumpíptō, “Ι befall”), from συν- (sun-, “together”) + πίπτω (píptō, “to fall”).
Often used with the preposition 'of' to link the sign to the underlying cause or illness.