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septicemia

American  
[sep-tuh-see-mee-uh] / ˌsɛp təˈsi mi ə /
Or septicaemia

noun

Pathology.
septicemias plural
  1. the invasion and persistence of pathogenic bacteria in the blood-stream.


Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

Etymology

Origin of septicemia

From New Latin, dating back to 1865–70; see origin at septic, -emia

Vocabulary lists containing septicemia

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:

There’s also a reference to septicemia, which is writer-director Emerald Fennell’s perhaps too-technical stab at explaining the nonspecific Victorian disease that afflicts one character.

From The Wall Street Journal Feb. 11, 2026

When given orally to mice with drug-resistant septicemia or pneumonia, lolamicin rescued 100% of the mice with septicemia and 70% of the mice with pneumonia, the team reported.

From Science Daily May 29, 2024

It's possible environmental stressors, such as heat and lack of food and water, may have led Bisgaard taxon 45 to proliferate and cause the septicemia in the Zimbabwe elephants, says Foggin.

From National Geographic Dec. 5, 2023

Her vital signs had reassured him she wasn’t suffering from septicemia — a bacterial infection reaching the bloodstream.

From Los Angeles Times Sep. 13, 2021

It won’t be tetanus, as they inoculated us, but may be septicemia; I don’t think those pins were very clean.

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

We had lobar pneumonia, meningococcal meningitis, streptococcal infections, diphtheria, endocarditis, enteric fevers, various septicemias, syphilis, and, always, everywhere, tuberculosis.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

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