Pandemic

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -É›mɪk

Origin

From Late Latin pandēmus ("affecting all the people, public, general"), from Ancient Greek πᾶν (pan , "all") (equivalent to English pan-) + δῆμος (dēmos, "the people").

Full definition of pandemic

Adjective

1. Widespread; general.
2. (medicine) Epidemic over a wide geographical area and affecting a large proportion of the population.World War I might have continued indefinitely if not for a pandemic outbreak of influenza.

Noun

1. A pandemic disease; a disease that hits a wide geographical area and affects a large proportion of the population.
• 2013-01, Katie L. Burke, Ecological Dependency, In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.”

Synonyms

Related terms

• endemic
• epidemic