PESTILENCE
Dictionary entry overview: What does pestilence mean?
• PESTILENCE (noun)
The noun PESTILENCE has 3 senses:
1. 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
2. any epidemic disease with a high death rate
3. a pernicious and malign influence that is hard to get rid of
Familiarity information: PESTILENCE used as a noun is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
• PESTILENCE (noun)
Meaning:
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
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
pest; pestilence; pestis; plague
Hypernyms ("pestilence" is a kind of...):
epidemic disease (any infectious disease that develops and spreads rapidly to many people)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pestilence"):
bubonic plague; glandular plague; pestis bubonica (the most common form of the plague in humans; characterized by chills, prostration, delirium and the formation of buboes in the armpits and groin; does not spread from person to person)
plague pneumonia; pneumonic plague; pulmonic plague (a rapidly progressive and frequently fatal form of the plague that can spread through the air from person to person; characterized by lung involvement with chill, bloody expectoration and high fever)
septicemic plague (an especially dangerous and generally fatal form of the plague in which infecting organisms invade the bloodstream; does not spread from person to person)
Meaning:
Any epidemic disease with a high death rate
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
pest; pestilence; plague
Hypernyms ("pestilence" is a kind of...):
epidemic disease (any infectious disease that develops and spreads rapidly to many people)
Meaning:
A pernicious and malign influence that is hard to get rid of
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Synonyms:
canker; pestilence
Context examples:
racism is a pestilence at the heart of the nation / according to him, I was the canker in their midst
Hypernyms ("pestilence" is a kind of...):
influence (a cognitive factor that tends to have an effect on what you do)
