pestilence

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pestilentia (“plague”), from pestilens (“infected, unwholesome, noxious”); see pestilent.

pestilence (countable and uncountable, plural pestilences)

1. Any epidemic disease that is highly contagious, infectious, virulent and devastating.
   • 1949 - Bruce Kiskaddon, George R. Stewart, Earth Abides

     The snowshoe-rabbits build up through the years until they reach a climax when they seem to be everywhere; then with dramatic suddenness their pestilence falls upon them.

   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 2, chapter 2

     "Take it, Christian dogsǃ take the palaces, the gardens, the mosques, the abode of our fathers - take plague with them; pestilence is the enemy we fly; if she be your friend, hug her to your bosoms. The curse of Allah is on Stamboul, share ye her fateǃ"

2. (archaic) Anything harmful to morals or public order.

• pest
• pesticide
• pestilent

• pestilence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• pestilence in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

From Old French pestilence, borrowed from Latin pestilentia.

• IPA^(key): /pɛs.ti.lɑ̃s/

pestilence f (plural pestilences)

1. (archaic or literary) pest epidemic; pestilence
2. extremely foul smell

   Synonyms: infection, puanteur

• pestilentiel

• “pestilence” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

pestilence f (oblique plural pestilences, nominative singular pestilence, nominative plural pestilences)

1. pestilence (epidemic disease)