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epidemic Definition

epi·demic (ep′ə dem′ik)

adjective

prevalent and spreading rapidly among many individuals in a community at the same time: said esp. of a serious human contagious disease

Etymology: Fr épidémique < MFr < ML epidemicus < epidemia < Gr epidēmia < epidēmios, among the people, general < epi-, epi- + dēmos, people: see democracy

noun

  1. an epidemic disease
  2. the rapid spreading of such a disease
  3. a rapid, widespread occurrence or growth

epidemic Related Forms
ep′i·dem′i·cally adverb
epidemic Synonyms

epidemic

n.

plague, scourge, pestilence, pandemic; see disease.

epidemic Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • cholera: A very serious epidemic of cholera struck Welshpool in 1848 causing many deaths.
  • obesity: The epidemic of obesity is followed by an epidemic of Type 2 diabetes.
  • poliomyelitis: The first epidemic of poliomyelitis in a tropical nation was contemporaneous with the introduction of the pesticide DDT in that country.
  • smallpox: The treatise impressed Empress Catherine II of Russia at a moment when a severe epidemic of smallpox was sweeping through Russia.
  • influenza: Annual vaccines are produced for routine use in protecting humans during seasonal epidemics of influenza.

Converse of object

  • curb: Certainly animal tests are failing to curb the current epidemic of drug-induced disease.
  • plague: Moreover, as we know, the plague epidemics of early modern London did not hit all areas of the capital with equal force.

Adjective modifier

  • foot-and-mouth: The incident comes two years to the day when the first case in the foot-and-mouth epidemic was reported in England.
  • typhoid: Hundreds of thousands have died from hunger or the cholera and typhoid epidemics which have swept the country.
  • devastating: During the 19 th century, cholera spread to Europe and the Americas, causing several devastating epidemics.
  • vcjd: Research Paul's current research is concerned with developing and applying statistical and mathematical models for the vCJD epidemic in the UK.
  • avian: The other great uncertainty is the effect of an avian flu epidemic in the EU.

Modifies a noun

  • typhus: These include infections of the skin and eyes ( e.g. trachoma ) and infections carried by lice, e.g. louse-borne epidemic typhus.
  • proportion: Low back pain has reached epidemic proportions in the western world.

Noun used with modifier

  • cholera: The cholera epidemic of 1832 had been the worst ever experienced in Scotland.
  • obesity: The ' big ' factor is a part of the obesity epidemic, " she adds.
  • smallpox: In 1864 there was a smallpox epidemic in the district.
  • typhus: While he student he worked with local doctors during a typhus epidemic.
  • influenza: He was probably a victim of the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918.
  • flu: The Spanish flu epidemic which swept Europe in 1918 was a mass killer.
epidemic Quotes

The AIDS epidemic has rolled back a big rotting log and revealed all the squirming life underneath it, since it involves, all at once, the main themes of our existence: sex, death, power, money, love, hate, disease and panic. No American phenomenon has been so compelling since theVietnam War.

—White, Edmund

   We're all going to go crazy, living this epidemic every minute, while the rest of the world goes on out there, all around us, as if nothing is happening, going on with their own lives and not knowing what it'slike, what we'regoing through.We're living through war, but where they're living it's peacetime, and we're all in the same country.

—Kramer, Larry (Lawrence)