Tay-Sachs disease
noun
variants
or Tay-Sachs
: a hereditary disorder of lipid metabolism typically affecting individuals of eastern European Jewish ancestry that is marked by the accumulation of lipids especially in nerve cells of the brain due to a deficiency of hexosaminidase and that is characterized by weakness, exaggerated startle response to sudden noise, diminished muscle tone, red retinal spots, macrocephaly, gradual loss of hearing and vision, deterioration of cognitive abilities and motor skills, seizures, paralysis, and death in early childhood
Note: Tay-Sachs disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait requiring that both parents pass on a copy of the defective gene on a chromosome other than a sex chromosome.
… if they both had the recessive gene and ever had a baby, there was a one in four chance the baby would have Tay-Sachs disease.—
Barbara Mahany
Barbara MahanyIn peoples around the world Tay-Sachs appears once in every 400,000 births. But it appears a hundred times more frequently—about once in 3,600 births—among descendants of Eastern European Jews, people known as Ashkenazim.—Jared Diamond
Jared DiamondExamples of Tay-Sachs disease in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Unlike Huntington’s disease and Tay-Sachs disease, there are no major genetic markers for many cancers or a truly definitive set for heart disease, let alone for intelligence, acne, body-mass index or longevity.
—Arthur Caplan & James Tabery, Scientific American, 28 July 2025
Genetic disease impacts millions of children in the U.S., with Down syndrome, Thalassemia, cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease and sickle cell disease among the most common.
—Jasmine Laws, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 June 2025
These tests, which can be conducted through blood, saliva, or tissue samples, offer hope in diagnosing conditions like Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease, and many others.
—Rajeev Ronanki, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024
It was written by the mother of a child diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease who decided to celebrate her with a lifetime’s worth of birthdays.
—Longreads, 15 Dec. 2022
Over the past two decades, cryobanks have stopped disqualifying donor applicants who are carriers of genetic diseases including Tay-Sachs disease, which is more prevalent among people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, and the sickle cell trait, which is most common among Black people.
—Amber Ferguson, Washington Post, 20 Oct. 2022
That meant shifting away from a gene therapy for GM2 gangliosidosis, also known as Tay-Sachs disease or Sandhoff disease, that was already in a clinical trial.
—Dallas News, 29 Aug. 2022
In tests using human cells grown in the lab, Liu's team used prime editing to correct the genes responsible for Tay-Sachs disease, a fatal neurological disorder that attacks in the first few months of life.
—Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 31 May 2022
On March 13, 2020, the day President Trump declared the coronavirus a national emergency, the Loughrans learned their 11-month-old boy Finn had Tay-Sachs disease.
—Fox News, 11 Apr. 2022
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Arthur Caplan & James Tabery, Scientific American, 28 July 2025
Genetic disease impacts millions of children in the U.S., with Down syndrome, Thalassemia, cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease and sickle cell disease among the most common.
—Jasmine Laws, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 June 2025
These tests, which can be conducted through blood, saliva, or tissue samples, offer hope in diagnosing conditions like Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease, and many others.
—Rajeev Ronanki, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024
It was written by the mother of a child diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease who decided to celebrate her with a lifetime’s worth of birthdays.
—Longreads, 15 Dec. 2022
Over the past two decades, cryobanks have stopped disqualifying donor applicants who are carriers of genetic diseases including Tay-Sachs disease, which is more prevalent among people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, and the sickle cell trait, which is most common among Black people.
—Amber Ferguson, Washington Post, 20 Oct. 2022
That meant shifting away from a gene therapy for GM2 gangliosidosis, also known as Tay-Sachs disease or Sandhoff disease, that was already in a clinical trial.
—Dallas News, 29 Aug. 2022
In tests using human cells grown in the lab, Liu's team used prime editing to correct the genes responsible for Tay-Sachs disease, a fatal neurological disorder that attacks in the first few months of life.
—Sandee Lamotte, CNN, 31 May 2022
On March 13, 2020, the day President Trump declared the coronavirus a national emergency, the Loughrans learned their 11-month-old boy Finn had Tay-Sachs disease.
—Fox News, 11 Apr. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Tay-Sachs disease.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Tay-Sachs%20disease. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
Tay-Sachs disease
noun
variants
or Tay-Sachs
: a hereditary disorder of lipid metabolism typically affecting individuals of eastern European Jewish ancestry that is marked by the accumulation of lipids especially in nerve cells of the brain due to a deficiency of hexosaminidase A and that is characterized by weakness, exaggerated startle response to sudden noise, diminished muscle tone, red retinal spots, macrocephaly, gradual loss of hearing and vision, deterioration of cognitive abilities and motor skills, seizures, paralysis, and death in early childhood
Note: Tay-Sachs disease is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait requiring that both parents pass on a copy of the defective gene on a chromosome other than a sex chromosome.
Tay-Sachs disease occurs as an autosomal recessive disorder in about 1 in 3600 infants of Ashkenazi Jewish parents, although cases have been reported in French-Canadians, Pennsylvania Dutch, and French-Acadian populations.—Nelson A. Wivel and LeRoy Walters, Science
Nelson A. Wivel and LeRoy Walters, ScienceLove words? Need even more definitions?
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