| Main Entry: | epidemic |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | widespread |
Synonyms: |
catching, communicable, contagious, endemic, general, infectious, pandemic, prevailing, prevalent, rampant, rife, sweeping, wide-ranging |
| Notes: | an endemic is a disease that is constantly present to a greater or lesser degree in people of a certain class or in people living in a particular location; an epidemic is a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease that infects many people at the same time; a pandemic is an epidemic that is geographically widespread occurring throughout a region or even throughout the world |
Antonyms: |
limited |
| Main Entry: | epidemic |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | widespread disease |
Synonyms: |
contagion, endemic, growth, outbreak, pest, pestilence, plague, rash, scourge, spread, upsurge, wave, what's going around |
| Main Entry: | catching |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | contagious (disease) |
Synonyms: |
communicable, dangerous, endemic, epidemic, epizootic, infectious, infective, miasmatic, pandemic, pestiferous, pestilential, taking, transferable, transmittable |
Antonyms: |
uncontagious |
| Main Entry: | contagious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | communicable |
Synonyms: |
catching, deadly, endemic, epidemic, epizootic, impartible, infectious, inoculable, pestiferous, pestilential, poisonous, spreading, taking, transmissible, transmittable |
| Notes: | diseases spread by contact are contagious and those spread by air or water are infectious |
Antonyms: |
noncommunicable |
| Main Entry: | contamination |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | adulteration |
Synonyms: |
contagion, corruption, decay, defilement, dirtying, disease, epidemic, filth, foulness, impurity, infection, pestilence, plague, poisoning, pollution, radioactivation, rottenness, spoliation, taint |
Antonyms: |
cleaning, cure, healing, purification, sterilization |
| Main Entry: | disease |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | ailment, affliction |
Synonyms: |
ache, affection, attack, blight, breakdown, bug*, cancer, canker, collapse, complaint, condition, contagion, contamination, convulsions, debility, decrepitude, defect, disorder, distemper, endemic, epidemic, feebleness, fever, fit, flu, hemorrhage, ill health, illness, indisposition, infection, infirmity, inflammation, malady, misery, pathosis, plague, seizure, sickliness, sickness, spell, stroke, syndrome, temperature, unhealthiness, unsoundness, upset, virus, visitation |
Antonyms: |
health |
| Main Entry: | flare-up |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | sudden outbreak |
Synonyms: |
blowup, epidemic, eruption, explosion, gush, outburst, rise |
| Main Entry: | infection |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | contamination |
Synonyms: |
bug*, communicability, contagion, contagiousness, corruption, defilement, disease, epidemic, flu, germs, impurity, insanitation, poison, pollution, septicity, virus, what's going around |
Antonyms: |
sanitation, sterility |
| Main Entry: | infectious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | catching, spreading |
Synonyms: |
communicable, contagious, contaminating, corrupting, defiling, diseased, epidemic, infective, mephitic, miasmic, noxious, pestilent, pestilential, poisoning, polluting, toxic, transferable, transmittable, virulent, vitiating |
Antonyms: |
antiseptic, germless, harmless, non-infectious, uncommunicable, uncontagious |
| Main Entry: | malady |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | disease |
Synonyms: |
ache, affection, affliction, ailment, attack, blight, bug*, cancer, complaint, condition, contagion, debility, disability, disorder, distemper, epidemic, fever, flu, ill health, illness, infection, infirmity, inflammation, plague, sickness, syndrome, virus |