EPIDEMIC
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)
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)
• EPIDEMIC (adjective)
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)
