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  1. epidemic love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Spreading rapidly and extensively by infection and affecting many individuals in an area or a population at the same time: an epidemic outbreak of influenza.
  2. adj. Widely prevalent: epidemic discontent.
  3. n. An outbreak of a contagious disease that spreads rapidly and widely.
  4. n. A rapid spread, growth, or development: an unemployment epidemic.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Common to or affecting a whole people or a great number in a community; generally diffused and prevalent. A disease is said to be epidemic in a community when it appears in a great number of cases at the same time in that locality, but is not permanently prevalent there. In the latter case it is said to be endemic.
  2. n. A temporary prevalence of a disease throughout a community: as, an epidemic of smallpox.
  3. n. The disease thus prevalent.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A widespread disease that affects many individuals in a population.
  2. n. epidemiology An occurrence of a disease or disorder in a population at a frequency higher than that expected in a given time period.
  3. adj. Like or having to do with an epidemic; widespread

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. (Med.) Common to, or affecting at the same time, a large number in a community; -- applied to a disease which, spreading widely, attacks many persons at the same time; See endemic.
  2. adj. Spreading widely, or generally prevailing; affecting great numbers, as an epidemic does
  3. n. (Med.) An epidemic disease.
  4. n. Anything which takes possession of the minds of people as an epidemic does of their bodies.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. (especially of medicine) of disease or anything resembling a disease; attacking or affecting many individuals in a community or a population simultaneously
  2. n. a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease; many people are infected at the same time

Etymologies

  1. From French épidémique, from épidémie, from Latin epidemia, from Ancient Greek ἐπιδήμιος (epidēmios), from ἐπί (epi, "upon") + δῆμος (dēmos, "people"). (Wiktionary)
  2. French épidémique, from épidémie, an epidemic, from Old French espydymie, from Medieval Latin epidēmia, from Greek epidēmiā, prevalence of an epidemic disease, from epidēmos, prevalent : epi-, epi- + dēmos, people; see dā- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “While I've argued plenty of times before about the media's irrepressibly giddy lust for slapping the term "epidemic" on any and every problem that effects a large enough group, there are far too many obscenely overweight people across this great land of ours, and if you think it's simply a personal decision that affects no one but them and the Wal-Mart scooters whose suspension systems they push to the point of collapse, think again.”

    The Huffington Post: Chez Pazienza: Food Fighter: Freedom of Choice vs. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution?

  • “Mr. Vance criticized what he called an epidemic of "greed and corruption" that imposes "a hidden billion-dollar-a-year-tax on New York City's construction industry.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Fraud Charged In Overbilling By Contractor

  • “MARC, Haiti — Haiti's cholera epidemic is adding fresh urgency to the need to upgrade the country's water and sanitation network, a pivotal step to containing the highly infectious and deadly disease that spreads through contaminated water.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Haiti Scrambles to Secure Clean Water

  • “Now, last month, as many people know, the airlines and the FAA met to talk about just how to fix what they call epidemic delays, especially at JFK.”

    CNN Transcript Nov 6, 2007

  • “Personally, who do you think is responsible for what you call the epidemic of obesity?”

    CNN Transcript Jul 30, 2003

  • “JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: It has not reach what we call the epidemic threshold in terms of deaths from influenza-like illness, but we wouldn't be surprised to see that happen given the pattern that's emerging right now ..”

    CNN Transcript Dec 10, 2003

  • “Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott, a Republican, launched an investigation in 2005 to uncover what he called an "epidemic" of voter fraud.”

    The Seattle Times

  • “Asked what concern the U.S. has with the word "epidemic," Andy Laine, a spokesman for the State Department in Washington, said he couldn't "go into specifics" about ongoing talks.”

    BusinessWeek.com -- Top News

  • “Public health experts have used the comparison to draw attention to the nation's growing prescription drug problem, which they characterize as an epidemic.”

    News - chicagotribune.com

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equivalents (8)

Other words for ‘epidemic’

  1. epizootic
  1. pestilent
  1. plaguey
  1. pandemic
  1. epiphytotic
  1. pestilential
  1. pestiferous
  1. epidemical

antonyms (1)

Words with the opposite meaning

  1. endemic

same context (21)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. outbreak
  2. plague
  3. pestilence
  4. illness
  1. famine
  2. malady
  3. scourge
  4. calamity
  1. cholera
  2. infection
  3. earthquake
  4. catastrophe
  1. virus
  2. ravage
  3. prevalence
  4. panic
  1. crisis
  2. contagion
  3. disease
  4. conflagration
  1. symptom

rhymes (7)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. academic
  1. endemic
  1. glycemic
  1. nonacademic
  1. pandemic
  1. polemic
  1. systemic

reverse dictionary (88)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. pandemic
  2. pest
  3. pestilence
  4. plague
  5. diaphragmatic pleurisy
  6. epidemic myalgia
  7. epidemic pleurodynia
  8. myosis
  9. Bornholm disease
  10. week-in
  11. epidemical
  12. influenza
  13. epizootic
  14. epidemic
  15. epidemically
  16. epidemiography
  17. epidemy
  1. infection
  2. infectious
  3. dengue
  4. grippe
  5. cerebro-spinal meningitis
  6. chicken cholera
  7. cholerine
  8. epidemicity
  9. epiphytotic
  10. panzoötic
  11. prosodemic
  12. pandemia
  13. cold
  14. UrlHelper
  15. hog cholera
  16. antipestilential
  17. epidemicalness
  1. epidemiology
  2. impress
  3. pleurodynia
  4. spotted fever
  5. encephalitis lethargica
  6. mass hysteria
  7. eventuate
  8. far-reaching
  9. bubonic plague
  10. mortality
  11. pestiferous
  12. Almirante Brown
  13. worldwide
  14. biting mania
  15. Asiatic cholera
  16. sporadic cholera
  17. acrodynia
  1. hantavirus
  2. pesthole
  3. pestilent
  4. pestilential
  5. sleeping sickness
  6. sleepy sickness
  7. sweating sickness
  8. abroad
  9. center
  10. strep throat
  11. rampant
  12. Edward III
  13. epidemic encephalitis
  14. epidemiologist
  15. lethargic encephalitis
  16. miliary fever
  17. plaguey
  1. Black Death
  2. black plague
  3. Edward
  4. mumps
  5. pebrine
  6. pink eye
  7. popular
  8. relapsing fever
  9. zymotic disease
  10. cholera
  11. contagious
  12. death
  13. disappear
  14. enzoötic
  15. grip
  16. microzyme
  17. petechial
  1. sweep
  2. tongue
  3. tulipomania

tags (2)

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  1. vcvcvcvc
  1. fun to say

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  • djsalinger Malcolm Gladwell's thinking of behaviours as epidemic in The Tipping Point.
    From yawning and shopping to smoking and suicide. May 25, 2009

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‘epidemic’ has been looked up 2386 times, loved by 3 people, added to 31 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 15.