Smallpox

Quick meaning: Smallpox is a noun meaning (pathology) An acute, highly infectious often fatal disease caused by Variola virus of the family Poxviridae. It was completely eradicated in the 1970s, but still exists in laboratories. Those who survived were left with pockmarks.

Meaning

(pathology) An acute, highly infectious often fatal disease caused by Variola virus of the family Poxviridae. It was completely eradicated in the 1970s, but still exists in laboratories. Those who survived were left with pockmarks.

Example Sentences

Can't make it in today, Mr. Smithers; I have smallpox. Well it wasn't wiped out in my house!

The Europeans brought new diseases such as smallpox, measles, dysentery, influenza, syphilis and leprosy.

We know that the most deadly of the early epidemics in America were those of the eruptive fevers—smallpox, measles, typhus, and so on. The first to arrive and the deadliest, said contemporaries, was smallpox.

Word Forms

• smallpoxes

Synonyms for smallpox

Depending on context, synonyms include variola.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include variola, measles, pox, monkeypox, vaccination, ceiling.

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