plague

American  

[pleyg] / pleɪg /

noun

plagues plural

1. an epidemic disease that causes high mortality; pestilence.

2. an infectious, epidemic disease caused by a bacterium, Yersinia pestis, characterized by fever, chills, and prostration, transmitted to humans from rats by means of the bites of fleas.

3. any widespread affliction, calamity, or evil, especially one regarded as a direct punishment by God.

   a plague of war and desolation.

4. any cause of trouble, annoyance, or vexation.

   Uninvited guests are a plague.

   Synonyms:

   torment, bother, nuisance

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verb (used with object)

plagues, present (3rd person singular) plagued, past participle, past plaguing present participle

1. to trouble, annoy, or torment in any manner.

   The question of his future plagues him with doubt.

2. to annoy, bother, or pester.

   Ants plagued the picnickers.

   Synonyms:

   disturb, irritate, badger, worry, fret, hector, harry, vex, harass

3. to smite with a plague, pestilence, death, etc.; scourge.

   those whom the gods had plagued.

4. to infect with a plague; cause an epidemic in or among.

   diseases that still plague the natives of Ethiopia.

5. to afflict with any evil.

   He was plagued by allergies all his life.

plague British  

/ pleɪɡ /

noun

1. any widespread and usually highly contagious disease with a high fatality rate

2. an infectious disease of rodents, esp rats, transmitted to man by the bite of the rat flea ( Xenopsylla cheopis )

3. See bubonic plague

4. something that afflicts or harasses

5. informal an annoyance or nuisance

6. a pestilence, affliction, or calamity on a large scale, esp when regarded as sent by God

7. archaic used to express annoyance, disgust, etc

   a plague on you

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verb

1. to afflict or harass

2. to bring down a plague upon

3. informal to annoy

plague Scientific  

/ plāg /

1. Any of various highly infectious, usually fatal epidemic diseases.

2. An often fatal disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted to humans usually by fleas that have bitten infected rats or other rodents.

3. ◆ Bubonic plague, the most common type, is characterized by the tender, swollen lymph nodes called buboes, fever, clotting abnormalities of the blood, and tissue necrosis. An epidemic of bubonic plague in fourteenth-century Europe and Asia was known as the Black Death.

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plague Cultural  

1. A highly contagious disease, such as bubonic plague, that spreads quickly throughout a population and causes widespread sickness and death.

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plague Idioms  

1. see avoid like the plague.

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Synonym Usage

See bother.

Discover More

The term is also used to refer to widespread outbreaks of many kinds, such as a “plague of locusts.”

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• antiplague
  noun
• plaguer
  noun
• unplagued
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• plagues
  plural

Participles

• plaguing
  present
• plagued
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• plague
  simple
• plagues
  simple
• have plagued
  perfect
• has plagued
  perfect
• am plaguing
  progressive
• are plaguing
  progressive
• is plaguing
  progressive
• have been plaguing
  perfect progressive
• has been plaguing
  perfect progressive

Past

• plagued
  simple
• had plagued
  perfect
• was plaguing
  progressive
• were plaguing
  progressive
• had been plaguing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will plague
  simple
• will have plagued
  perfect
• will be plaguing
  progressive
• will have been plaguing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of plague

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English plage, from Latin plāga “stripe, wound,” Late Latin: “pestilence”

Explanation

When the homeowner described her ant problem as a plague, the exterminator thought she was being a bit melodramatic. After all, a few bugs aren't exactly a huge calamity. Centuries ago, if you had admitted to a friend that you had the plague, that friend would have hightailed it in the other direction. In the Middle Ages, the plague was a horribly contagious illness that spread like wildfire through Europe, killing millions of people. Thanks to the introduction of better hygiene and antibiotics, plague doesn't describe a killer disease as often these days. Instead, it commonly overstates an annoyance, like an apartment dweller claiming his building is plagued by cockroaches.

Example Sentences

And the biggest plague, the one that never seems to go away, is deep-seated resentment for, often outright hostility to, mothers and the work of parenting.

From Salon • Jun. 24, 2026

The positioning remained impressively accurate, without the blind spots or wandering location dots that often plague consumer pet trackers.

From Slate • Jun. 20, 2026

He’ll just declare victory and steer his plague of locusts to consume something else.

From Salon • Jun. 19, 2026

A study published in Nature found that plague was already killing people 5,500 years ago in small hunter-gatherer groups, thousands of years before farming communities and cities emerged.

From Science Daily • Jun. 18, 2026

For long no one had been allowed to come into the city because of the plague, but now that the danger was over, people came from everywhere to exchange goods.

From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli

Related Words

• contagion
• curse
• epidemic
• infection
• infestation
• influenza
• invasion
• outbreak
• pandemic
• scourge