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,... plagueepidemiccontagionscourgepandemicblight Word family Forms pestilentpestilential Derived forms pestilentpestilential Related forms pestpesticidepestiferous Etymology AI details 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 Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary Google Images # 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 markdown