dysentery

American  

[dis-uhn-ter-ee] / ˈdɪs ənˌtɛr i /

noun

• dysenteries
  plural

1. Pathology. an infectious disease marked by inflammation and ulceration of the lower part of the bowels, with diarrhea that becomes mucous and hemorrhagic.

2. diarrhea.

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dysentery British  

/ ˈdɪsəntrɪ /

noun

1. infection of the intestine with bacteria or amoebae, marked chiefly by severe diarrhoea with the passage of mucus and blood

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dysentery Scientific  

/ dĭs′ən-tĕr′ē /

1. A gastrointestinal disease characterized by severe, often bloody diarrhea, usually caused by infection with bacteria or parasites.

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dysentery Cultural  

1. A painful disease of the intestines characterized by inflammation and diarrhea. Dysentery may be caused by bacteria or viruses, or may occur as the result of infestation by an amoeba.

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Discover More

Dysentery can be transmitted by contact with water or food that has been contaminated by human waste. Public health and sanitation procedures in developed countries, however, have largely eliminated this means of transmission.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• dysenteric
  adjective
• postdysenteric
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• dysenteries
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of dysentery

First recorded in 1350–1400; from Medieval Latin dysenteria, from Greek, from dysénter(a) “bad bowels” ( see dys-, enteron) + -ia -ia; replacing Middle English dissenterie, from Old French

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Compare meaning

How does dysentery compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• dysentery vs. diarrhea

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Explanation

Dysentery is a nasty sounding word for a nasty condition: an intestinal infection that results in diarrhea. There are few things as unpleasant as dysentery, an infectious condition, kind of like the flu, that includes severe diarrhea. Dysentery is common in countries and places with poor health conditions and sewage problems. If the drinking water is filthy, that's a great way to spread dysentery. This word sounds kind of dirty, and that's a good hint to its meaning: the horrible illness of dysentery spreads in dirty, unsafe living conditions.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dysentery dysenteries

Let’s hope the Gopher coach doesn’t succumb to dysentery by Halloween.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

“It contributes to ill health, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, water-related diseases, and it contributes to conflicts over water.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 26, 2025

You and/or your ancestors didn’t die of dysentery.

From Slate ● Nov. 21, 2024

Aid agencies say doctors in Gaza are also struggling to treat a huge caseload of dysentery, pneumonia, and severe skin diseases because of the collapse of the health sector.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2024

Stoically, Le Gentil packed up his instruments and set off for the nearest port, but en route he contracted dysentery and was laid up for nearly a year.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

"They've got tuberculosis, Salmonella, all the dysenteries," says Rodger Farr, a psychiatrist who ministers to the homeless of Los Angeles.

From Time Magazine Archive

Of these, 110,673, or 68 per cent., were of the zymotic class,—fevers, dysenteries, scurvy, etc., which are generally supposed to be due to exposure and privation, and other causes which are subject to human control.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 60, October, 1862 by Various

When on the other hand the body, though wasted, still holds out, then the bile is expelled, like an exile from a factious state, causing associating diarrhoeas and dysenteries and similar disorders.

From Timaeus by Benjamin Jowett

The sun-strokes, the dysenteries, the fevers, the choleras, have affinity for July and August.

From Around The Tea-Table by T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt) Talmage

Hence we have all heard of contagious pleurisies, catarrhs, dysenteries, ulcers, &c., and if the doctrines of that writer be received, we shall soon also hear of contagious Cholera Morbus with a vengeance.

From Letters on the Cholera Morbus. Containing ample evidence that this disease, under whatever name known, cannot be transmitted from the persons of those labouring under it to other individuals, by contact—through the medium of inanimate substances—or through the medium of the atmosphere; and that all restrictions, by cordons and quarantine regulations, are, as far as regards this disease, not merely useless, but highly injurious to the community. by J. (James) Gillkrest

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