pestilence
Americannoun
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a deadly or virulent epidemic disease.
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something that is considered harmful, destructive, or evil.
noun
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any epidemic outbreak of a deadly and highly infectious disease, such as the plague
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such a disease
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an evil influence or idea
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pestilence
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin pestilentia, from pestilent-, stem of pestilēns “unhealthy, noxious” ( see pestilent) + -ia -y 3 ( def. )
Explanation
Pestilence means a deadly and overwhelming disease that affects an entire community. The Black Plague, a disease that killed over thirty percent of Europe's population, was certainly a pestilence. Pestilence is also one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation (which is part of The Bible). When pestilence rides into town, you want to be somewhere far, far away. Whereas a person gets the flu, a nation experiences a pestilence. A disease that causes widespread crop damage or animal deaths can also be called a pestilence.
Vocabulary lists containing pestilence
"The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe
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Much Ado About Nothing
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Twelfth Night
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Pestilences, prodigies, portents, the results of seeming accidents, excite the vulgar mind.
From Westminster Sermons with a Preface by Kingsley, Charles
That Commonwealths have followed three methods for extending their power V. That changes in Sects and Tongues, and the happening of Floods and Pestilences, obliterate the memory of the past VI.
From Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius by Thomson, Ninian Hill
All the clubs that I have ever seen—and I've travelled a bit—are cursed with at least one of these Creeping Pestilences which you observe mostly from the rear.
From Fore! by Loan, Charles Emmett Van
Pestilences were stopped by processions, led by priests carrying the Host.
From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 3 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Lectures by Ingersoll, Robert Green
Pestilences were permitted to stalk forth unchecked, or at best opposed only by mummeries.
From History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science by Draper, John William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
