EPIDEMIC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does epidemic mean? 

• EPIDEMIC (noun)
  The noun EPIDEMIC has 1 sense:

1. a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease; many people are infected at the same time

  Familiarity information: EPIDEMIC used as a noun is very rare.

• EPIDEMIC (adjective)
  The adjective EPIDEMIC has 1 sense:

1. (especially of medicine) of disease or anything resembling a disease; attacking or affecting many individuals in a community or a population simultaneously

  Familiarity information: EPIDEMIC used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EPIDEMIC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A widespread outbreak of an infectious disease; many people are infected at the same time

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("epidemic" is a kind of...):

eruption; irruption; outbreak (a sudden violent spontaneous occurrence (usually of some undesirable condition))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "epidemic"):

pandemic (an epidemic that is geographically widespread; occurring throughout a region or even throughout the world)

Derivation:

epidemic ((especially of medicine) of disease or anything resembling a disease; attacking or affecting many individuals in a community or a population simultaneously)

• EPIDEMIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(especially of medicine) of disease or anything resembling a disease; attacking or affecting many individuals in a community or a population simultaneously

Context example:

an epidemic outbreak of influenza

Similar:

epiphytotic ((of plants) epidemic among plants of a single kind especially over a wide area)

epizootic ((of animals) epidemic among animals of a single kind within a particular region)

pandemic (epidemic over a wide geographical area)

pestiferous; pestilent; pestilential; plaguey (likely to spread and cause an epidemic disease)

Domain category:

medical specialty; medicine (the branches of medical science that deal with nonsurgical techniques)

Antonym:

ecdemic (of or relating to a disease that originates outside the locality in which it occurs)

endemic (of or relating to a disease (or anything resembling a disease) constantly present to greater or lesser extent in a particular locality)

Derivation:

epidemic (a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease; many people are infected at the same time)

 Context examples 

A strain of swine influenza A virus identified as the causative agent of the swine flu epidemic of Spring 2009.

(Influenza A (H1N1) Virus, NCI Thesaurus)

The study appears in the latest issue of The Journal of the America Medical Association and could be an effective ground zero in the fight against the current opioid epidemic.

(Study: Common Painkillers as Effective as Opioids in Hospital Emergency Room, VOA)

It is the main cause of most influenza epidemics.

(influenza A virus, NCI Dictionary)

Before the HIV/AIDS epidemic, KS usually developed slowly.

(Kaposi's Sarcoma, NIH: National Cancer Institute)

“This highlights a third factor at play here – the obesity epidemic – and helps bring that risk to light when considering individual susceptibility to asthma.”

(Vitamin D may protect against pollution-associated asthma symptoms in obese children, National Institutes of Health)

The study about the New Zealand epidemic may change the approach toward developing a vaccine against gonorrhea.

(Vaccine for Meningitis Shows Some Protection Against Gonorrhea, VOA)

The National Action Plan on Breast Cancer (NAPBC) is a public-private partnership created to eliminate the epidemic of breast cancer.

(National Action Plan on Breast Cancer, NCI Thesaurus)

In the early 1980s, when the HIV/AIDS epidemic began, patients rarely lived longer than a few years.

(HIV/AIDS Medicines, NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

The epidemic form is found primarily in areas in which white (polished) rice is the staple food, as in Japan, China, the Philippines, India, and other countries of southeast Asia.

(Beri Beri, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

“Gregory, let me recommend to your attention this singular epidemic among the sheep. Drive on, coachman!”

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)