Usage of Endemic, Epidemic, and Pandemic
This trio of terms describes various degrees of an infectious disease's spread. The process begins with an outbreak—a sudden rise in the presence of a disease. An outbreak that can't be stopped or slowed, and in which the disease is spreading rapidly to many people within a localized community or region (such as a single country), is called an epidemic. The word pandemic refers to an epidemic that has gone international: the disease, once localized in scope, now starts to appear in other countries and even on other continents, typically infecting a large number of people in a short amount of time. A pandemic often has significant economic and social ramifications due to its global impact. If a disease lingers for a long time as an epidemic or a pandemic, it may eventually become endemic to an area. The word endemic describes a disease that persists at a consistent level within a region with fairly predictable rates of infection and spread, making it easier to prevent future outbreaks. Epidemic, pandemic, and endemic all share the Greek root dêmos, meaning "district, country, people."
Examples of epidemic in a Sentence
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 laughing
Noun
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, 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
IEEE Spectrum, 21 Aug. 2015
But some researchers say the response should not be limited to the epidemic hot spots in big cities.
—Byjon Cohen, science.org, 9 Dec. 2024
Chris Wiley, New Yorker, 28 June 2025
Pure Heroine and Melodrama left indelible marks on mainstream music; Lorde is instrumental to the 21st-century whisper-singer epidemic.
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 27 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for epidemic
Cite this Entry
“Epidemic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epidemic. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
epidemic
1 of 2 adjective
epidemic
2 of 2 nounAdjective
derived from Greek epidēmia "an epidemic, visit," from epidēmos "visiting, epidemic," from epi- "on, at" and dēmos "people, the masses" — related to democracy
Medical Definition
epidemic
1 of 2 adjective
Herbert Ratnerepidemic
2 of 2 noun
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