Remission

IPA Pronunciation: /rɪˈmɪʃn/
Part of Speech: Noun

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Origin

Remission belongs to the language of easing, reduction, and release.

In medicine, it describes a period in which the signs and symptoms of a serious illness lessen or disappear.

But remission is not automatically the same as cure.

That distinction gives the word its tension.

Something has receded.

Something may still remain.

Remission is relief without the promise that the story is over.

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Etymology

Remission entered English in the Middle Ages through Old French remission and Latin remissio — “a loosening, diminishing, or sending back.”

It comes from Latin remittere — “to send back, slacken, let go, abate” — from re-, “back,” and mittere, “to send.”

Its earliest English senses concerned forgiveness and release from obligation. By the early fifteenth century, it was also being used for the abatement of diseases and fevers.

The old image survives clearly:

something pressing upon us is loosened.

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Core Definitions

Improvement in Serious Illness

A period in which the signs and symptoms of a serious disease decrease or disappear.

“The cancer has been in remission for two years.”

Reduction of a Sentence

In British English, a reduction in the amount of time someone must spend in prison.

“He received remission for good behaviour.”

Reduction or Cancellation of Payment

A formal reduction or cancellation of money owed, such as a fee or tax.

“Some students qualify for remission of tuition fees.”

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Remission & Cure

This distinction is especially important in cancer care.

Remission means that the signs and symptoms of cancer have decreased or disappeared.

Cure goes further: it means that the cancer is considered gone and is not expected to return.

A person in complete remission may feel well and show no signs of cancer. Yet complete remission does not necessarily mean cure.

Remission therefore describes the condition of the illness now, without guaranteeing its future.

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Partial & Complete Remission

In cancer medicine, partial remission means that the cancer has decreased but has not disappeared entirely.

Complete remission means that all signs of cancer have disappeared in response to treatment.

Even complete remission does not necessarily mean cure.

The language is deliberately careful.

Medicine may be able to say that no signs of cancer are currently present without being able to promise that the disease will never return.

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Remission Beyond Medicine

The older meanings remain alive.

A prisoner may receive remission of part of a sentence.

A fee or tax may be remitted.

Older religious English also speaks of the remission of sins: forgiveness or release from guilt.

Across these uses, the underlying movement is consistent.

A burden is reduced.

Something that pressed heavily loosens its hold.

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Remission in History & Language

Long before remission became familiar in modern medicine, it belonged to the language of forgiveness and release.

Its earliest English uses referred especially to the remission of sins — forgiveness or pardon. Later, it could also mean release from a duty or obligation, before developing its medical sense of disease or fever becoming less severe.

The meanings may seem different, but they share the same underlying movement:

something that held, burdened, or pressed upon someone is allowed to loosen.

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Experiential Dimension

Remission can evoke:

• Relief — the illness has receded
• Hope — time opens forward again
• Uncertainty — improvement is not necessarily permanence
• Watchfulness — follow-up continues
• Gratitude — ordinary life becomes newly visible
• Fear — recurrence may remain imaginable

Remission can make absence feel powerful.

What is no longer happening becomes the thing most carefully observed.

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Symbolic Dimensions

• Clearing Sky — danger receding without certainty
• Unlit Warning Light — no active signal, but continued attention
• Open Gate — movement into a freer period
• Calm Water — disturbance temporarily stilled
• Released Knot — pressure loosened rather than erased

Remission symbolises easing, reprieve, uncertainty, and release.

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Synonyms & Near-Relations

• Improvement — change toward a better condition
• Abatement — reduction in intensity or severity
• Subsidence — gradual lessening
• Relief — easing of discomfort or burden
• Reprieve — temporary escape from something difficult
• Recovery — broader return toward health
• Cure — elimination of disease, and therefore stronger than remission

(Remission is distinctive because improvement may be profound while still leaving the future open.)

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Conceptual Relations

• Diagnosis — identifies the illness whose course remission may later describe
• Prognosis — considers what remission may mean for the future
• Chronic — some chronic illnesses may move through periods of remission and recurrence
• Acute — an acute episode may subside, although remission is more strongly associated with serious or recurring disease
• Convalescence — describes the return of strength; remission describes disease becoming less active or evident
• Rehabilitation — may continue even when the underlying illness is in remission

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Takeaway

Remission is not the same as an ending.

It is the illness receding—
the signs quieter,
the symptoms diminished,
the future suddenly wider
than it seemed before.

Sometimes nothing can be found.

Sometimes something remains.

And even when the word
brings enormous relief,
it keeps one small door
open to uncertainty.

Remission does not promise
that the story is finished.

It says that, for now,
the burden has loosened.

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Remission is the moment illness loosens its hold without promising never to return.

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