Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A usually fatal epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague.
- n. A pernicious, evil influence or agent.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The disease called the plague or pest; also, any epidemic malignant disease.
- n. That which is pestilential or pestiferous; that which produces or tends to produce malignant disease.
- n. That which is morally pestilent; that which is mischievous, noxious, or malignant in any respect.
Wiktionary
- n. Any epidemic disease that is highly contagious, infectious, virulent and devastating.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Specifically, the disease known as the plague; hence, any contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating.
- n. Fig.: That which is pestilent, noxious, or pernicious to the moral character of great numbers.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal
- n. a pernicious and malign influence that is hard to get rid of
- n. any epidemic disease with a high death rate
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pestilentia ("plague"), from pestilens ("infected, unwholesome, noxious"); see pestilent. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“So the Lord ... sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it -- The infliction only of the pestilence is here noticed, without any account of its duration or its ravages, while a minute description is given of the visible appearance and menacing attitude of the destroying angel.”
“I was much struck too with the dirtiness of the people of Palmyra, which dirtiness results in pestilence, ophthalmia, and plagues of flies.”
“The men disdainfully repelled the idea of having deserted the defence of their city; and one, the youngest among them, in answer to the taunt of a sailor, exclaimed, Take it, Christian dogs! take the palaces, the gardens, the mosques, the abode of our fathers -- take plague with them; pestilence is the enemy we fly; if she be your friend, hug her to your bosoms.”
“To the three great judgments of war, famine, and pestilence, is here added the beasts of the earth, another of God's sore judgments, mentioned Ezek. xiv.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation)
“The pestilence is God's messenger; this he sent among them, with directions whom to strike dead, and it was done.”
“Don’t forget food shortages, more disease and pestilence is also being predicted due to higher temperatures caused by global warming/climate change.”
“I’m glad the pestilence is fleeing the household. dorothy Said,”
“Wait until only the wealthy will be the only ones able to afford food which will become expensive due to it being scarce due to the increase of burnt out crops and rise in pestilence.”
Think Progress » Global warming is a ‘nightmare’ for coffee.
“We have a bad joke about Tabasco, we call it pestilence.”
“A pestilence is a medical physical disease that medical science cannot stop.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pestilence’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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RELI - words you immediately associat...
almighty, altar, anoint, apostle, archangel, Balaam, baptism, advent, ark, baptist, baptize, begotten and 341 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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GRE Reference
A list of words unfamiliar to me that I have repeatedly encountered in GRE question sets.
parochial, clique, salacious, aegis, ostracize, conceited, sacrilegious, inane, serendipity, gourmand, polemic, tenuous and 138 more...
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Words I See Primarily in Books About ...
furze, peat, turnips, Michaelmas, Candlemas, hunter's moon, harvest moon, banish, rampart, lest, ordure, market day and 74 more...
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Notre Dame de Paris
From Notre Dame de Paris by good ole Victor Hugo. (Also called The Hunchback of Notre Dame.)
cuivres, diable, hawthorn, provost, epithalamium, affrighted, mendicants, vagrants, Styx, chimeras, coif, matagrabolise and 196 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Cessilind's Words
dvorak, ingenuity, cessation, oblique, transverse, anvilicious, evoke, verisimilitude, integrity, strega, recumbent, depression and 164 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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The Iliad
Selection from Homer's, The Iliad. Written 800BCE. Samuel Butler translation.
countless ills, pestilence, Olympus, spoke fiercely, in reverence, with his bow and ..., in their death-th..., loved of heaven, plague, wisest of augurs, black with rage, his eyes flashed ... and 102 more...
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thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
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kirstenio's Words
lascivious, transcendant, phantasmagoria, salacious, beatitude, solitude, pseudo, pretentious, inanity, sublimation, clobber, obscurity and 186 more...
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jagosaurus's favorites
Words I like mostly because of the way they sound and feel.
ticonderoga, petulance, snark, estimable, chickahominy, feline, gezellig, gneiss, shit, willy-nilly, shelter, coda and 366 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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heart of darkness
yawl, sea-reach, offing, barge, sprit, estuary, yarn, aft, mizzenmast, placid, gauzy, diaphanous and 141 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pestilence.
seanahan The WordNet definition lists 3 senses, the above, "any epidemic disease with a high death rate", and "a pernicious and malign influence that is hard to get rid of". The second is what you are referring to. The third is the metaphorical sense. Jan 5, 2008
bilby What kind of apocalyptic weekend are you planning, SoG? Jan 5, 2008
sonofgroucho The WordNet definition refers specifically to plague. Surely pestilence is a more general term? Jan 5, 2008