chicken pox

Cultural

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.

Discover More

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

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.

When someone gets chicken pox, usually in childhood, the virus does not fully leave the body.

From Science Daily • Dec. 3, 2025

HHS is now expanding the net to include a form of the chicken pox vaccine and even a version of the hepatitis B vaccine.

From Salon • Sep. 29, 2025

We all know the viral bad guys – Covid, flu, norovirus, herpes, chicken pox, measles… the list goes on.

From BBC • Jun. 27, 2025

Nor was it ever used in vaccines against chicken pox, polio or pneumonia.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2025

He had rheumatic fever, chicken pox, pneumonia three or four more times, started coughing blood when he was six, was anemic, drowsy all the time, constantly sniffling, weak and miserable, and—everybody thought— dying.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023