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The term diabetes can mean any of several different diseases which usually involve excessive urination (polyuria) when untreated:

• the most common is "sugar diabetes", diabetes mellitus, is a condition involving defects in metabolism leading to excessive blood glucose levels. It is found primarily in three forms:
  • type 1 (formerly called juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes (IDDM))
  • type 2 (formerly called adult-onset, obesity-related, or non-insulin-dependent diabetes (NIDDM))
  • gestational diabetes (during pregnancy) as well as
  • many other types of non-transient hyperglycemia

In most medical contexts, the single word "diabetes" is assumed to mean one of the forms of diabetes mellitus, all other kinds of diabetes being far less common. Medical shorthand for these is "DM". In modern medical and colloquial usage, "diabetes" always refers to diabetes mellitus.

• or the less common "water diabetes", diabetes insipidus, where the body is incapable of concentrating urine, leading to increased urine production, fluid loss and thirst.

The current medical shorthand term for diabetes insipidus is "D.I."

• or any of several other conditions, all much more rare than the preceding.

The meanings of the descriptors mellitus and insipidus refer to the tastes of the urine in the two conditions (sweet and tasteless, respectively) and date back to the days of gustatory urinalysis ("pisse prophecy").

• Disambiguation pages