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

Words nearby chickenpox

chicken-livered, chicken lobster, chicken louse, chicken mushroom, chicken out, chickenpox, chicken run, chickens come home to roost, chickenshit, chicken snake, chicken switch

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

How to use chickenpox in a sentence

That makes it twice as infectious as the original strain and almost as contagious as the chickenpox.
A guide to delta, delta-plus, lambda, and other infectious coronavirus variants|empire|August 24, 2021|Popular-Science
Each sick person will infect an average of seven others, making it nearly as contagious as chickenpox.
The COVID-19 delta variant is almost as contagious as chickenpox|Sara Chodosh|August 13, 2021|Popular-Science
What I did know was that everyone in my daughter’s house had been vaccinated against chickenpox and no one would touch three bumps burrowed under my boxwood bush of hair.
I Visited My Grandkids After 16 Months and Realized How Much the Pandemic Had Changed Me|Connie Schultz|May 18, 2021|Time
It took two decades for researchers to develop a vaccine for polio, in 1953, and even longer to get a chickenpox vaccine, in 1995.
Has Covid-19 permanently altered the development timetable for other vaccines?|Annalisa Merelli|December 15, 2020|Quartz

For some viruses, such as the varicella-zoster virus that causes chickenpox, immunity can last for decades.
Who Should Get a Covid-19 Vaccine First?|Jill Neimark|November 20, 2020|Singularity Hub
In January, Barbara Walters, 83, suffered from a rare case of chickenpox, leaving her View perch for six weeks.
Did ‘The View’ Just Lose Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck?|Ramin Setoodeh|March 8, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Chickenpox is almost a harmless disease, but it is more infectious than even measles.
Essays In Pastoral Medicine|Austin Malley
It causes an alarm but does not prove mortal, and is probably what we term the chickenpox.
The History of Sumatra|William Marsden
This forms one of its distinguishing features when chickenpox is compared with smallpox.
The Home Medical Library, Volume I (of VI)|Various
The eruption appears about the same time in smallpox and not in successive crops, as in chickenpox.
The Home Medical Library, Volume I (of VI)|Various
Chickenpox is more commonly a disease of childhood; smallpox attacks all ages.
The Home Medical Library, Volume I (of VI)|Various

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.