pestilence

C2+ Topic:Health & Medicine

US /ˈpɛstɪləns/ UK /ˈpestɪləns/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a fatal epidemic disease, especially the plague

A great pestilence swept through the city that winter.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a fatal epidemic disease,... plague epidemic contagion scourge pandemic blight

Word family

Forms pestilentpestilential

Derived forms pestilentpestilential

Related forms pestpesticidepestiferous

Etymology

From Old French pestilence, from Latin pestilentia ('plague, unhealthy atmosphere'), from pestilens ('infected, noxious'), from pestis ('plague').

pestilentia Latin pestis Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Health & Medicine Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# pestilence

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈpɛstɪləns/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈpestɪləns/

## Meanings
1. a fatal epidemic disease, especially the plague

## Examples
- A great pestilence swept through the city that winter.

## Synonyms
- plague
- epidemic
- contagion
- scourge
- pandemic
- blight

## Derived Forms
- pestilent
- pestilential

## Related Forms
- pest
- pesticide
- pestiferous

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: pestilentia
- Root: pestis

## Etymology
From Old French pestilence, from Latin pestilentia ('plague, unhealthy atmosphere'), from pestilens ('infected, noxious'), from pestis ('plague').

## AI Etymology
Pestilence is from Old French pestilence, from Latin pestilentia ('plague, unhealthy atmosphere'), from pestilens ('infected, noxious'), from pestis ('plague'). Important recorded forms include pestilentia (Latin) and pestis (Latin). The modern sense follows that older lexical line closely. In current use it covers a fatal epidemic disease, especially the plague. The wider family includes derived forms such as pestilent and pestilential and related words such as pest, pesticide, and pestiferous.

## Topics
- Health & Medicine
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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