Pestilence Meaning
/ˈpɛstələn(t)s/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAny epidemic disease that is highly contagious, infectious, virulent and devastating.
nounAnything harmful to morals or public order.
Sentence Examples
Many squandered their money on charms and amulets, thinking that would ward off the pestilence.
Tom doesn't know the difference between pastry and pestilence.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The medieval town was devastated by a deadly ____ that killed thousands of people.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The medieval city was devastated by ____ that swept through the population and killed thousands.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pestilentia (“plague”), from pestilens (“infected, unwholesome, noxious”); equivalent to pestilent + -ence.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 91:5-6:
""Take it, Christian dogsǃ take the palaces, the gardens, the mosques, the abode of our fathers - take plague with them; pestilence is the enemy we fly; if she be your friend, hug her to your bosoms. The curse of Allah is on Stamboul, share ye her fateǃ""
— 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in The Last Man. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:
"It was reserved for Christians to torture bread, the staff of life, bread for which children in whole districts wail, bread, the gift of pasture to the poor, bread, for want of which thousands of our fellow beings annually perish by famine; it was reserved for Christians to torture the material of bread by fire, to create a chemical and maddening poison, burning up the brain and brutalizing the soul, and producing evils to humanity, in comparison of which, war, pestilence, and famine, cease to be evils."
— 1831 July 15, “Of the Blood”, in Western Journal of Health, volume 4, number 1, L. B. Lincoln, page 38:
"The pestilence slew and slew, and ceased not by day or by night, and those who escaped from the pestilence were slain of the famine."
— 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
"The snowshoe-rabbits build up through the years until they reach a climax when they seem to be everywhere; then with dramatic suddenness their pestilence falls upon them."
— 1949, Bruce Kiskaddon, George R. Stewart, Earth Abides:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The medieval town was devastated by a deadly ____ that killed thousands of people.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The medieval city was devastated by ____ that swept through the population and killed thousands.