zoonosis
Americannoun
-
zoonoses
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of zoonosis
1875–80; < New Latin, irregular < Greek zōio- zoo- + nósos sickness, with ending apparently conformed to -sis
Explanation
An illness that can be spread between animals and humans is a zoonosis. Rabies is one example of a zoonosis that's transmitted when a rabid animal bites a person. Some kinds of zoonoses can be directly transferred from animal to human, while others go through a third animal that acts as a carrier but shows no symptoms. If a human transmits a disease to an animal, it's known as "reverse zoonosis." The list of zoonoses includes cat scratch disease, anthrax, avian flu, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The word comes from the Greek roots zōon, "animal," and nosos, "disease."
Vocabulary lists containing zoonosis
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:
The overwhelming weight of scientific opinion in the epidemiological and virological communities is that the virus reached humans via naturally infected wildlife, a process known as zoonosis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
Public health concerns, including zoonosis and tick-borne diseases, further highlight the importance of careful management in this unique context, where the conservation of a population with a millennium-long history is at stake.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 20, 2024
Captive bat studies could also help clarify the risk of what’s called reverse zoonosis, in which humans or other animals infect bats with pathogens they could spread far and wide.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 4, 2023
When a virus jumps from animals to humans, it's called zoonosis, from the Greek zōon "animal" and nosos "disease."
From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2023
A zoonosis is a disease that infects animals but can be transmitted from animals to humans.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 25, 2013
Bats and mice are generally known sources of zoonoses, defined as infections or diseases that are transmissible from animals to humans.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2023
Approximately 75 percent of recently emerging infectious diseases affecting humans are zoonotic diseases, zoonoses, diseases that primarily infect animals and are transmitted to humans; some are of viral origin and some are of bacterial origin.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
Her responsibilities included livestock markets, biosecurity and zoonoses - diseases that can move between animals and humans.
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2022
The discovery ignited scientific interest in zoonoses, diseases that jump from animals to humans.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 28, 2021
Many zoonoses — rabies, Lyme, anthrax, mad cow disease, SARS, Ebola, West Nile, Zika — loom large in public consciousness; others are less familiar: Q fever, orf, Rift Valley fever, Kyasanur Forest disease.
From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2020
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
