How to Pronounce Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is pronounced fy-broh-my-AL-jee-ah. Break it into five syllables: fy-bro-my-AL-gia, with the stress on the third syllable (AL). Say it like "FY-bro-my-AL-jee-uh" and you'll have it right.

The stress falls on the third syllable: AL. A common mistake is stressing the first syllable (FY-bro-my-al-jee-ah), but the correct way is fy-broh-my-AL-jee-ah, with the emphasis on AL like the word "ALley."

Fibromyalgia comes from three Latin and Greek roots: "fibro" means fiber or tissue, "myo" means muscle, and "algia" means pain. Put together, it literally means "muscle and tissue pain," which describes the widespread discomfort the condition involves.

Fibromyalgia is a medical term for a long-lasting condition that causes pain throughout muscles and soft tissues in the body. In everyday language, people might just say they have "fibromyalgia" or use the short form "FM."

Fibromyalgia is often shortened to FM in medical writing and conversations. You'll see it written as "FM" or sometimes "FMS" (fibromyalgia syndrome), and it's pronounced by saying the letters: "F-M" or "F-M-S."

Many medical terms use "myalgia" to mean muscle pain, such as polymyalgia (pain in multiple muscle groups) and myalgia caused by other conditions. The word "myo" appears in lots of medical terms about muscles, like myocarditis (heart muscle inflammation) and myopathy (muscle disease).

You might say, "She was diagnosed with fibromyalgia last year," or "My doctor thinks I might have fibromyalgia because of my widespread pain." The word is a noun (a name for a condition) and is typically lowercase unless it starts a sentence.

The correct spelling is fibromyalgia (one word, all lowercase when used in the middle of a sentence). There's no hyphen or separate words, and all the syllables are connected: f-i-b-r-o-m-y-a-l-g-i-a.