chickenpox

or chick·en pox

[ chik-uhn-poks ]

/ ˈtʃɪk ənˌpɒks /

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noun

a disease, commonly of children, caused by the varicella zoster virus and characterized by mild headache and fever, malaise, and eruption of blisters on the skin and mucous membranes.

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Also called varicella.

Origin of chickenpox

First recorded in 1720–30

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use chickenpox in a sentence

In contrast, the actual chicken pox virus long ago exited my bloodstream and is not detectable.
The ‘HIV-Cured Baby’ Distorts Hope|Kent Sepkowitz|March 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
For example, though I had chicken pox decades ago, I still have antibody to chicken pox.
The ‘HIV-Cured Baby’ Distorts Hope|Kent Sepkowitz|March 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This can look for all the world like primary kid-based chicken pox.
Barbara Walters Hit With Chicken Pox—a Rare Malady Among Octogenarians|Kent Sepkowitz|January 29, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Though chicken pox kills few people, adults generally are the ones it does kill, usually in the form of a viral pneumonia.
Barbara Walters Hit With Chicken Pox—a Rare Malady Among Octogenarians|Kent Sepkowitz|January 29, 2013|DAILY BEAST

And chicken pox, let the record show, is not a great disease in adults.
Barbara Walters Hit With Chicken Pox—a Rare Malady Among Octogenarians|Kent Sepkowitz|January 29, 2013|DAILY BEAST
They took it like scarlet fever or chicken-pox, and feel all the more secure now for having had it.
Sinister Street, vol. 1|Compton Mackenzie
It was like toothache or mumps or chicken-pox, an ignoble, complaint of which one is ashamed, but before which one is helpless.
The Honorable Percival|Alice Hegan Rice
I understand nobody who had been vaccinated got any of the chicken-pox, as you call it.
The Clarion|Samuel Hopkins Adams
Chicken pox, too, differs essentially from smallpox in the course of its development.
The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV. (of IV.)|Grant Hague
An eruption of chicken pox does not burst out all over the body at once, but appears in successive rashes.
The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV. (of IV.)|Grant Hague

British Dictionary definitions for chickenpox

chickenpox

/ (ˈtʃɪkɪnˌpɒks) /

noun

a highly communicable viral disease most commonly affecting children, characterized by slight fever and the eruption of a rash

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for chickenpox

chickenpox

[ chĭk′ən-pŏks′ ]

A highly contagious infectious disease, usually of children, caused by the varicella-zoster virus of the genus Varicellavirus. The infection is characterized by fever, and itching skin blisters that start on the trunk of the body and spread to the extremities. Also called varicella

Cultural definitions for chickenpox

chicken pox

A mild but highly contagious disease, caused by a virus and characterized by slight fever and the eruption of blisters on the skin. Chicken pox is classified as a disease of childhood, although it can occur in adults.

notes for chicken pox

Children who have had chicken pox are immune to future infection by the virus that causes it.