yellow fever

American  

noun

Pathology.

1. an acute, often fatal, infectious febrile disease of warm climates, caused by an RNA virus transmitted by a mosquito, especially Aedes aegypti, and characterized by liver damage and jaundice.

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yellow fever British  

noun

1. Also called: yellow jack.   black vomit.  an acute infectious disease of tropical and subtropical climates, characterized by fever, haemorrhages, vomiting of blood, and jaundice: caused by a virus transmitted by the bite of a female mosquito of the species Aedes aegypti

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yellow fever Scientific  

/ yĕl′ō /

1. A life-threatening infectious disease caused by a virus of the genus Flavivirus and characterized by fever, jaundice, and internal bleeding. Yellow fever occurs mainly in tropical regions of Africa and Latin America and is transmitted by mosquitoes.

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Etymology

Origin of yellow fever

First recorded in 1730–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

yellow fever

Researchers later used the archival record of yellow fever outbreaks, paired with genome analyses of modern mosquitoes, to piece together the insect’s travels.

From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026

As it happened, Fordlandia was beset by smallpox and yellow fever, rubber-destroying fungi, and labor unrest that required military intervention.

From Barron's ● Jan. 18, 2026

"The yellow fever vaccine remains effective against modern strains and seeing the virus in such fine detail lets us better understand why the vaccine strain behaves the way it does," Professor Watterson said.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 27, 2025

He died of yellow fever during a voyage to the Caribbean, and Cassandra never married.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2025

The commission had been set up in Cuba following the Spanish-American War to discover the cause of yellow fever and develop a cure.

From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy