EPIDEMIC DISEASE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does epidemic disease mean? 

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

1. any infectious disease that develops and spreads rapidly to many people

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• EPIDEMIC DISEASE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any infectious disease that develops and spreads rapidly to many people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

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

infectious disease (a disease transmitted only by a specific kind of contact)

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

pest; pestilence; plague (any epidemic disease with a high death rate)

pest; pestilence; pestis; plague (a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal)

Bornholm disease; diaphragmatic pleurisy; epidemic myalgia; epidemic pleurodynia; myosis (an acute infectious disease occurring in epidemic form and featuring paroxysms of pain (usually in the chest))