Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Producing or breeding infectious disease.
- adj. Infected with or contaminated by an epidemic disease.
- adj. Morally evil or deadly; pernicious.
- adj. Bothersome; annoying.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Plague-bearing; pestilential; infectious; contagious: as, pestiferous particles.
- Noxious in any manner; mischievous; malignant; annoying.
Wiktionary
- adj. containing organisms that cause contagious diseases
- adj. annoying, vexatious
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Pest-bearing; pestilential; noxious to health; malignant; infectious; contagious.
- adj. Noxious to peace, to morals, or to society; vicious; hurtful; destructive.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. contaminated with infecting organisms
- adj. causing irritation or annoyance
- adj. tending to corrupt or pervert
- adj. likely to spread and cause an epidemic disease
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Latin pestiferus, variant of pestifer : pestis, pestilence; see pest + -fer, -fer.
Examples
“Vermont's record on the slavery issue was so strong that Georgia's legislature resolved that a ditch be dug around the "pestiferous" state and it be floated out to sea.”
“In his call for a crusade, Innocent III denounced the Cathars as “pestiferous men.””
““Let us say a bond of, oh, only a pound, because she caused some trouble to that pestiferous printer Franklin.””
“To me this sounds like the voice of privilege complaining about how annoying it is to deal with those pestiferous people who keep pointing out how unfair the privilege is.”
“Even pestiferous snow geese should be hunted with respect, not shot like rats or starlings.”
“And don't forget those "Christofascists" who had almost completely taken over under the last Administration and how the American population was forced to go to church, praise the Lord, and carry to term those pestiferous unwanted babies.”
“The place was of the most ricketty description, and situated in the midst of filthy and pestiferous nuisances.”
“Unequivocally, he states," The civil rulers execute, justly and sinlessly, pestiferous men in order to protect the peace of the state.”
Texas Faith: Are Texans immoral for supporting the death penalty? | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com
“Ice floes and icebergs, frozen and endless arctic nights, long and pestiferous summer days are the least of it.”
Review of The Voyage of the Short Serpenet, by Bernard du Boucheron
“He crept through a “pestiferous” flat country of muddy greens and browns, a sea of “rank jungle-grass” that parted for the odd acacia tree or the conical brush roof of a native hut.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pestiferous’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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My Little Phonies
Names for the next generation of My Little Ponies. Inspired by Star's list.
juggernaught, flamboyant, cuddly maggot, astrobleme, agroof, windburn, poshlost, crucifer, feedbag, dunderwhelp, nebelwerfer, bliss ninny and 443 more...
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Adjectival Arcana
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
unitegmic, acaulescent, reticuloendothelial, ingressive, uniate, acanthopterygian, ossific, epiphysial, perivisceral, acœlomatous, cestoid, acælomate and 7762 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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Derideo's Words
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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Carry Me Home
Another kind of bear list: words bearing the -fer suffix ("that which carries"), the -ferous suffix ("bearing," "producing," or "yielding").
Also see (if you like) Carry Me Home Again.aquifer, conifer, umbellifer, transfer, thurifer, defer, telfer, suffer, rotifer, refer, foraminifer, poriferous and 156 more...
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heart of darkness
yawl, sea-reach, offing, barge, sprit, estuary, yarn, aft, mizzenmast, placid, gauzy, diaphanous and 141 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 2: More Common
pilgrim, indubitably, incorrigible, bombastic, histrionics, depredation, perspicuity, discombobulate, peregrination, ambulatory, redux, fractious and 164 more...
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kevinofnine's Words
sesquipedalian, pentasyllabic, sobriquet, epistemic, ameliorate, quibble, autological, magniloquent, circumlocutious, quintillion, bookish, tantamount and 139 more...
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hagendas 2008
mise-en-scene, occultation, lodestone, obdurate, remontoire, filigree, insensate, carapace, vicissitude, verdigris, indivuation, intercalate and 224 more...
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Bearing and Carrying
Words with the -fer suffix ("that which carries") or the -ferous suffix ("bearing," "producing," or "yielding").
aligerous, aluminiferous, antenniferous, argentiferous, armigerous, arundiferous, auriferous, bacciferous, balaniferous, barbigerous, belliferous, brachiferous and 187 more...
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zetadiction
words that embody life
hydrae, kleptocracy, curmudgeon, wordie, risotto, qi, pulchritudinous, micropolitan, schadenfreude, neolithic, experimentalist, zeta and 477 more...
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-ferous, -iferous
having, bearing, or containing
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Words I Should Use More Often
Words that I'll use to sound erudite.
fungible, aggrandizement, tete-a-tete, sententious, serendipitous, fortuitous, lugubrious, declivity, propitiatory, volubility, august, tenebrous and 214 more...
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Words That Mean Things
I found most of these words in books! That means they MUST be good.
flinders, periplus, palaver, midden, cadge, legerdemain, flense, lapidary, geas, bailey, susurration, satoris and 128 more...
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