Spanish flu

American  

[span-ish floo] / ˈspæn ɪʃ ˈflu /

Also Spanish influenza

noun

Pathology.

1. the pandemic strain of type A influenza that spread throughout the world during 1918–20: it is also referred to as the 1918 flu pandemic or 1918 influenza pandemic .

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Etymology

Origin of Spanish flu

First recorded in 1918; so called because wartime censorship in the major belligerent powers, particularly the U.S., Great Britain, Germany, and France, minimized early reports of illness and mortality among themselves but freely reported the effects of the pandemic in neutral Spain, leaving the impression that Spain was very hard hit by this flu

Compare meaning

How does spanish-flu compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• Spanish flu vs. Black Death
• Spanish flu vs. Black Plague

Example Sentences

But the pandemic of Spanish flu after the First World War killed around 50 million people worldwide.

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026

Before that, the lowest growth rate was just under 0.5% in 1919 at the height of the Spanish flu.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 27, 2026

Muldoon died of a heart attack in 1929 in Tacoma at age 41, possibly weakened by his Spanish flu bout from 1919.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 2, 2024

Dorothy Hoffner, born in 1918, had survived both the Spanish flu and Covid pandemics, as well as her first skydiving attempt at age 100.

From New York Times • Oct. 3, 2023

To illustrate this, Korn points to the Spanish flu pandemic.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot