typhoid fever

noun

1. 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 Also calledenteric fever

typhoid fever

/ tī′foid′ /

1. 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

1. 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 .

Word History and Origins

Origin of typhoid fever¹

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

Example Sentences

Along the way Clark got married, fathered seven children, lost his first wife to typhoid fever, remarried in his 60s and fathered two additional daughters.

From Los Angeles Times

Showers are being postponed, and children with only dirty water to drink are being hospitalized with typhoid fever.

From New York Times

Researchers can accurately track where typhoid fever cases are highest by monitoring environmental samples for viruses called bacteriophages that specifically infect the bacterium that causes typhoid fever.

From Science Daily

Salmonella Typhi is a deadly human-specific pathogen that causes typhoid fever.

From Science Daily

In these crowded encampments, outbreaks of dysentery, typhoid fever, and smallpox were rampant.

From Scientific American