pus

American  

[puhs] / pʌs /

noun

1. a yellow-white, more or less viscid substance produced by suppuration and found in abscesses, sores, etc., consisting of a liquid plasma in which white blood cells are suspended.

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pus British  

/ pʌs /

noun

1. the yellow or greenish fluid product of inflammation, composed largely of dead leucocytes, exuded plasma, and liquefied tissue cells

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pus Scientific  

/ pŭs /

1. A thick, yellowish-white liquid that forms in infected body tissues, consisting of white blood cells, dead tissue, and cellular debris.

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Other Word Forms

• puslike adjective

Etymology

Origin of pus

1535–45; < Latin; akin to Greek pýon pus. See pyo-

Example Sentences

All Awwal Musa's fingers were clawed and her legs discharged pus.

From BBC • Mar. 8, 2025

It also delivered results in less than four hours for urine, pus, and sputum samples, and within one day for blood samples.

From Science Daily • Mar. 13, 2024

It involved deliberately infecting someone with the disease by pricking someone else’s smallpox pustule, removing some pus, and placing that pus inside an incision on the recipient’s arm or thigh.

From Slate • Sep. 4, 2023

Federal officials urge workers to notify bosses if they have vomiting, jaundice, a sore throat with fever, diarrhea or lesions with pus.

From Washington Times • May 31, 2023

They were like tiny pimples, each with whitish pus at the tips, and they covered the whole of his face, even his eyelids.

From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie