Trouble with "Paroxysm"

[xbladefate25]

I try to make sense of these 2 meanings of "paroxysm" but I do not understand.

Source: DICTIONARY.COM
paroxysm
[ par-uhk-siz-uhm, puh-rok‐ ]SHOW IPA


See synonyms for: paroxysm / paroxysmal on Thesaurus.com
Post-College Level
noun
1) any sudden, uncontrollable outburst; a fit of emotion or action:
Example Sentences: The mention of his name can can send people into paroxysms of anger (a fit of emotion variant)
The war unleashed a paroxysm of violence (a fit of action variant).
When the clowns performed their act, the audience went into a paroxysm of giggles (perhaps uncontrollable outburst)
2) Pathology. a severe attack or a sudden increase in intensity of a disease, usually recurring periodically.
Example Sentence: If one of the Wallace children made a grammatical error at dinner, she would lapse into a paroxysm of coughing until the error was caught and corrected.

 

[emsr2d2]

I am trying to make sense of these 2 two meanings of "paroxysm" but I can't. do not understand.

Source: DICTIONARY.COM
paroxysm
noun

1) any sudden, uncontrollable outburst; a fit of emotion or action:

2) Pathology. a severe attack or a sudden increase in intensity of a disease, usually recurring periodically.

I have stripped out the example sentences and other extraneous information. What exactly is it about those two definitions that you don't understand? Which part(s) of them are giving you problems?

 

[xbladefate25]

Sorry my english not good. I am a chinese exchange student in USA. When I look at both entries they look same to me. Same theme of just any regular outburst. doesn't matter if they are emotional outburst, violent outburst, etc. My brain thinks these 2 kind of outbursts the same

 

[emsr2d2]

Sorry, my English is not good. I am a Chinese exchange student in the USA. When I look at both those entries, they look same to me. They have the same theme of - just any regular outburst. It doesn't matter if they are emotional outbursts, violent outbursts, etc. My brain thinks of these 2 two kinds of outbursts in the same way.

Look carefully at my corrections above. I don't think trying to understand the definition of such difficult words is going to benefit you at the moment. You need to concentrate on the basics. Look at the list of basic rules I have given you in your other thread (macrocosm/microcosm).

 

[Tarheel]

The example sentences should have helped a great deal. Àlso, you should expect the definitions of a word to be similar. (It would be weird if they weren't.)