Main Entry: plague

Pronunciation: \ˈplāg\

Function: noun

1 : an epidemic disease causing a high rate of mortality : pestilence <a plague of cholera>
2 : a virulent contagious febrile disease that is caused by a bacterium of the genus Yersinia (Y. pestis synonym Pasteurella pestis), that occurs in bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic forms, and that is usually transmitted from rats to humans by the bite of infected fleas (as in bubonic plague) or directly from person to person (as in pneumonic plague)—called also black death