noun
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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.
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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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How does dysentery compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It’s more like The Oregon Trail for podcasting, but with less dysentery.
From Slate ● Apr. 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
Cockroaches carry a wide range of diseases and pathogens including bubonic plague, dysentery, hepatitis, hookworms, leprosy, salmonella and polio.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2024
He suffered dysentery, beriberi, ulcerated skin and repeated bouts of malaria.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2024
It could cure burns, sores, piles, colic in babies, bleeding dysentery and even rheumatism.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
"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
Other measures were taken, and the hospitals were no longer in want of bark; but dysenteries, which frequently proved mortal, spread every where.
The sun-strokes, the dysenteries, the fevers, the choleras, have affinity for July and August.
From Around The Tea-Table by Talmage, T. De Witt (Thomas De Witt)
The most prevalent diseases of this country are dysenteries, hot fevers, and calentures, in all which they prescribe abstinence as a principal remedy.
It curdles with soap, gives a red colour to the meat that is boiled in it, and, when drank by strangers, never fails to occasion pains in the stomach and bowels; nay, sometimes produces dysenteries.
From Travels through France and Italy by Smollett, T. (Tobias)
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.
