hot potato speech

A term for a defect of resonance in which the speech has a muffled quality, fancifully likened to a person speaking with a hot potato in the mouth
Aetiology Space-occupying lesions, e.g., lymphoid masses, quinsy—peritonsillar—cellulitis or abscess, tumours of the vallecula between the epiglottis and the base of the tongue

Segen's Medical Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.

hot potato speech

Speech pathology A fanciful term for a disorder of resonance in which the speech has a muffled quality, due to space-occupying lesions–eg, lymphoid masses, tumors of the vallecula between the epiglottis and the base of the tongue

McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.