typhoid fever

British

noun

Also called: enteric fever. an acute infectious disease characterized by high fever, rose-coloured spots on the chest or abdomen, abdominal pain, and occasionally intestinal bleeding. It is caused by the bacillus Salmonella typhosa ingested with food or water

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

typhoid fever Scientific

/ tī′foid′ /

A life-threatening infectious disease caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi and transmitted through contaminated food and water. It is characterized by high fever, intestinal bleeding, diarrhea, and skin rash.

typhoid fever Cultural

An acute and highly contagious disease transmitted by food or water contaminated with a kind of bacterium. The disease, which is often fatal, is characterized by high fever, pain in the abdomen, and bleeding in the intestines.

Etymology

Origin of typhoid fever

C19: from _typhus + _-oid ; so called because the symptoms resemble those of typhus

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.

Soldiers died in combat, from wounds, and most often from epidemics of infectious diseases such as dysentery, typhoid fever, or measles.

From Literature

Suddenly Parton was a single mother of two daughters, mourning the deaths of her husband from typhoid fever and their first daughter, who died of brain fever.

From The Wall Street Journal

When Willie Lincoln, the third son of President Lincoln, died at age 11 of typhoid fever, he was interred in a mausoleum in Oak Hill Cemetery.

From Los Angeles Times

Cholera, dysentery and typhoid fever are no longer health burdens in the U.S. thanks to a robust water treatment system.

From Salon

Inorganic chloramines are commonly used to disinfect drinking water to safeguard public health from diseases like cholera and typhoid fever.

From Science Daily

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023