typhoid fever

British  

noun

1. Also called: enteric fever.  an acute infectious disease characterized by high fever, rose-coloured spots on the chest or abdomen, abdominal pain, and occasionally intestinal bleeding. It is caused by the bacillus Salmonella typhosa ingested with food or water

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typhoid fever Scientific  

/ tī′foid′ /

1. A life-threatening infectious disease caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi and transmitted through contaminated food and water. It is characterized by high fever, intestinal bleeding, diarrhea, and skin rash.

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typhoid fever Cultural  

1. An acute and highly contagious disease transmitted by food or water contaminated with a kind of bacterium. The disease, which is often fatal, is characterized by high fever, pain in the abdomen, and bleeding in the intestines.

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Etymology

Origin of typhoid fever

C19: from _typhus + _-oid ; so called because the symptoms resemble those of typhus

Example Sentences

His mother told the news agency she believed her son had died of typhoid fever, not Ebola.

From BBC • May 21, 2026

She had a broken back, typhoid fever, pneumonia and pleurisy.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 14, 2026

Cholera, dysentery and typhoid fever are no longer health burdens in the U.S. thanks to a robust water treatment system.

From Salon • Jan. 27, 2025

Along the way Clark got married, fathered seven children, lost his first wife to typhoid fever, remarried in his 60s and fathered two additional daughters.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 27, 2024

Also on the train is the casket of the Lincolns’ third son, William Wallace “Willie” Lincoln, who had died in 1862 at age eleven of typhoid fever.

From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly