adjective
noun
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Etymology
Origin of pandemic
First recorded in 1660–70; from Late Latin pandēm(us), from Greek pándēmos “common, public” ( pan- “all” + dêm(os) “the people” + -os adjective suffix) + -ic; see pan-
Explanation
Remember the 2009 swine flu? That was a pandemic — an illness that swept over much of the globe. People fear pandemics, and with good reason. The black plague that ran through Asia and Europe in the 1300s is believed to have killed as much as half of Europe's population, between 75 and 100 million folks. The word comes from ancient Greek — pan (meaning "all") and demos (meaning "people"), or simply put — all the people. Of course, people across the globe suffer from the seasonal flu, and many die from it. But it isn't considered a pandemic because it is generally harmless to the healthy.
Vocabulary lists containing pandemic
President Obama's Farewell Address
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Human Geography - High School
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For National Pancake Day, Words With the Greek Roots "Pan-"
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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:
But clearly, his decision didn’t stick, and in 2020, the pair quarantined together during the pandemic, a revelation that arose when eagle-eyed fans noticed their social media content had identical backgrounds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
Banks recently underwent just the kind of expense shock Slok described, after the COVID-19 pandemic, when interest rates suddenly climbed after a decade near zero.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
Jung said the think tank was working on a "pandemic preparedness" report on AI labour market disruption.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
Arrivals have fluctuated over the decades, but plunged sharply during the Covid pandemic when many nations shut their borders.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
His mother, toward the end of the pandemic, crying and crying and saying, “I can’t do this anymore,” not to him but through him.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Bunch “briefed the Regents on his efforts to navigate the dual pandemics caused by the Coronavirus and issues surrounding race, racism, and racial identity,” the minutes of the June 2020 meeting stated.
From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026
In areas such as climate science, pandemics, artificial intelligence or medical research, public conversations frequently invoke scientific consensus.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 9, 2026
He added that El Niño, as well as global shipping disruption and the threat of pandemics, mean you cannot "just rely on the private sector coming through every single time".
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Historically, pandemics have happened multiple times a century, and many scholars believe that they’ll become more frequent due to climate change and deforestation.
From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026
Why hypothesize the existence of vast, super-deadly pandemics that seem unlike anything else in the historical record?
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
