MERS

American

[murz] / mɜrz /

noun

Pathology.

Middle East(ern) Respiratory Syndrome: an often fatal respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus similar to the SARS virus and characterized by fever, coughing, and shortness of breath.

Etymology

Origin of MERS

First recorded in 2010–15

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.

Those illiquid holdings make up an average 20% of smaller funds like MERS.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 2, 2026

Initially, the list included names of viruses that are nearly household names — Ebola, SARS-1 and MERS.

From Salon • Feb. 7, 2024

That followed a $335-million deal for Simplifile in 2019, and the acquisition of MERS, in which ICE took a majority stake in 2016 and bought outright in 2018.

From Reuters • Mar. 9, 2023

They involve eight institutions in the United States, most studying flu, SARS, and MERS.

From Science Magazine • Oct. 18, 2022

The worst-case scenario would be a virus as contagious as the omicron variant and as deadly as MERS, where 35% of those infected die.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 25, 2022

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