epidemic
adjective
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Definition of epidemic
(Entry 1 of 2)
1 : affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time typhoid was epidemic
2a : excessively prevalent
b : contagious sense 4 epidemic laughter
3 : characterized by very widespread growth or extent : of, relating to, or constituting an epidemic the practice had reached epidemic proportions
epidemic
noun
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Definition of epidemic (Entry 2 of 2)
1 : an outbreak of disease that spreads quickly and affects many individuals at the same time : an outbreak of epidemic disease
2 : an outbreak or product of sudden rapid spread, growth, or development an epidemic of bankruptcies
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Other Words from epidemic
Adjective
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adjective
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adverb
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noun
Synonyms for epidemic
Synonyms: Adjective
catching, contagious, infectious, spreading
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Examples of epidemic in a Sentence
Adjective
Overuse injuries—particularly in the elbows and shoulders of young pitchers—are indeed becoming epidemic. Orthopedists often blame coaches and parents for failing to monitor how many pitches kids are throwing and for not giving them time to rest their arms. — Sara Corbett, New York Times Sports Magazine, June 2006 The dream of running off to live the good life in a postcard perfect town in the mountains or by the sea often reaches epidemic proportions near the end of summer. — John Rasmus, National Geographic, September 2004 Saturday Night Fever propelled disco fever to epidemic proportions: By 1978, 40 percent of all the music on Billboard's Hot 100 was disco. — Peter Braunstein, American Heritage, November 1999 the little girl's giggles were epidemic, and soon the entire gathering was laughingNoun
Cosmetic surgery is now so prevalent that it could qualify as a national epidemic. — Toni Bentley, New York Times Book Review, 22 Oct. 2006 "Spim," as people are beginning to call unsolicited instant messages, is the latest installment in the growing epidemic of unwanted electronic ads and a further sign that unscrupulous online marketers will seek to take advantage of all of the Internet's communication tools, not limiting themselves to spam or pop-up ads. — David McGuire, www.washingtonpost.com, 13 Nov. 2003 Whatever might have motivated Kennedy to put [Ian] Fleming on his list, from that point, Bond became an international obsession. When the first Bond film appeared in 1962—Dr. No—the obsession was a full-blown craze, a cultural epidemic. — Gerald Early, New Letters, 1999
Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective
Wochit As Marion County sees its hepatitis C rate soar to epidemic proportions, local health officials Thursday called for the county to start the state’s eighth syringe exchange program. — Shari Rudavsky, Indianapolis Star, "Marion County could get needle exchange program, as hepatitis C rates soar," 17 May 2018 Broward, like many other local governments across the country, is suing or considering suing the companies because of the large costs incurred as the opioid epidemic taxes local police and emergency medical services. — Larry Barszewski, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Broward sues over opioids, including Walmart, Walgreens and CVS," 15 Mar. 2018 In 2016, the World Health Organization added Lassa fever to its list of priority pathogens of epidemic potential, calling for more research. — Leslie Roberts, Science | AAAS, "Health workers scramble to contain deadly rat-borne fever in Nigeria," 12 Mar. 2018 But, the study authors, led by microbiologist Robert Britton at Baylor College of Medicine, found that the two epidemic strains had genetic tricks to live on just tiny amounts. — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, "Mysterious explosion of a deadly plague may come down to a sugar in ice cream," 10 Jan. 2018 Cunningham worked as an epidemic intelligence officer and has been deployed for a number public health emergencies. — Paula Rogo, Essence.com, "This CDC Employee Has Been Missing For Almost Two Weeks," 26 Feb. 2018 The flu is on its way out. While still at epidemic levels, the historically bad 2017-2018 season has finally started to subside. — Fortune, "America's Nightmare Flu Season Is Finally Coming to an End," 24 Feb. 2018 And in 1982, former Olympian Tom Waddell – who would die from AIDS at the height of the epidemic five years later – helped found the first Gay Games for LGBT athletes. — Zoe Sayler, Smithsonian, "A Brief History of Openly Gay Olympians," 4 Dec. 2014 These, alas, are often taken out of context, something that seems epidemic among conservative social media types who aspire to political office. — Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, "This Is an American Prison in 2017," 26 Oct. 2017Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
First responders are dealing with an epidemic never before seen. — Terry Demio, Cincinnati.com, "Overdoses surging in Hamilton County, public health issues alert," 11 July 2018 At the time, Tennessee was confronting an emerging opioid epidemic. — Fred Schulte, Washington Post, "Tennessee-Based Pain Management Group To Close Clinics Amid Financial Turmoil," 9 July 2018 As America copes with an epidemic of gun violence that kills 96 people each day, there has been vigorous debate about how to prevent people with mental illness from acquiring weapons. — Jonel Aleccia And Melissa Bailey, USA TODAY, "Unlocked and loaded: Families confront dementia and guns," 1 July 2018 Given their prevalence and overall safety, there is unlikely to be an epidemic of women dying of sepsis in hospitals across the nation as there was pre-Roe. — Jill Filipovic, Time, "America Will Lose More Than Abortion Rights If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned," 28 June 2018 One of those cases, NIFLA v. Becerra, was the result of the work my organization—NARAL Pro-Choice America—has done to fight an epidemic of fake women’s health centers. — Ilyse Hogue, Marie Claire, "I'm the President of NARAL. Roe v. Wade Is in Grave Danger.," 27 June 2018 This may not seem like an obvious way to fight an abuse epidemic, but few other options exist. — The Editors, Scientific American, "Addicts Should Be Able to Shoot Up Legally in Safe-Injection Facilities," 27 June 2018 An accidental overdose of prescription drugs would do nicely, linking back to a 10th season story line while addressing an American epidemic. — Robert Lloyd, latimes.com, "What’s 'Roseanne' without Roseanne? Why ABC's risky move with 'The Conners' just might work," 23 June 2018 Published in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, the study looked at patient notes from of more than 300 Ebola survivors in Sierra Leone, one of the countries worst hit in the 2014-2016 epidemic. — Fox News, "Ebola survivors suffer severe mental and neurological problems," 12 July 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'epidemic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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Learn More about epidemic
From the Editors at Merriam-Webster
When Does an Outbreak Become an...
When Does an Outbreak Become an Epidemic?
And what about 'pandemic'?
Dictionary Entries near epidemic
Statistics for epidemic
Look-up Popularity
Time Traveler for epidemic
The first known use of epidemic was in 1603
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More Definitions for epidemic
epidemic
noun
English Language Learners Definition of epidemic
medical : an occurrence in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people
: a sudden quickly spreading occurrence of something harmful or unwanted
See the full definition for epidemic in the English Language Learners Dictionary
epidemic
noun
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Kids Definition of epidemic
(Entry 1 of 2)
1 : a rapidly spreading outbreak of disease
2 : something harmful that spreads or develops rapidly a crime epidemic
epidemic
adjectiveKids Definition of epidemic (Entry 2 of 2)
: spreading widely and affecting many people at the same time an epidemic disease
epidemic
adjective
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Medical Definition of epidemic
(Entry 1 of 2)
1 : affecting or tending to affect an atypically large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time typhoid was epidemic — compare endemic, sporadic sense 1
2 : of, relating to, or constituting an epidemic coronary disease…has hit epidemic proportions— Herbert Ratner
Other Words from epidemic
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adverb
epidemic
nounMedical Definition of epidemic (Entry 2 of 2)
1 : an outbreak of epidemic disease
2 : a natural population (as of insects) suddenly and greatly enlarged
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