What is the medical term for high blood pressure?

The medical term for high blood pressure is hypertension. This condition occurs when the force of the blood against the artery walls is consistently too high, which can lead to various health issues, including heart disease, stroke, and kidney problems. Hypertension is often categorized as primary (essential) or secondary, with the primary type having no identifiable cause, while the secondary type is often due to other medical conditions or certain medications.

In the context of the other options, hypotension refers to low blood pressure, which is the opposite of hypertension and can also have serious health implications but is not the correct term for high blood pressure. Normotension indicates normal blood pressure levels, which is not relevant to the question about high blood pressure. Prehypertension is a term used to describe higher-than-normal blood pressure that hasn't yet reached the threshold for hypertension; however, it doesn't denote the condition of high blood pressure itself. Therefore, hypertension is the precise term needed to identify the condition described in the question.