noun

pestilence

PES-tih-luns/ˈpestɪləns/

A deadly infectious disease spreading through a population.

Pestilence spreads through the crowded city, claiming lives every day.

Several medieval people sick in separate simple beds, one caregiver moving among them; epidemic scope, no gore or beak mask.

Etymology

pestilenceLatinplague; unwholesome atmosphere

Latin pestilentia could mean a plague or an unwholesome atmosphere. The selected English sense preserves the disease meaning: a fatal epidemic, rather than merely unhealthy conditions.

In context

TopicsDive56:13

shall not do much hurt but when the air of any one of our towns shall be so corrupted as to spread and maintain the pestilence in it

Short Discourse Concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Methods to Be Used to Prevent It 🏆 By R

More examples

The village loses half its population to pestilence.
Doctors struggle to contain the pestilence before it reaches neighboring towns.
Fear of pestilence keeps travelers away from the port.

Forms

pestilence · pestilences

pestilential adjective — Causing or spreading deadly infectious disease.

Similar words

plague: Can refer specifically to the bacterial disease spread by fleas.
epidemic: Describes widespread disease without necessarily implying a high death toll.