Smallpox Meaning
/ˈsmɔːlpɒks/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn 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.
Sentence Examples
Everybody is immune to smallpox nowadays.
I am immune to smallpox.
They said he had a weak form of smallpox.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The deadly ____ virus was eliminated from the world by vaccines.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Thanks to a global vaccination campaign, ____ was officially declared eradicated in 1980.
Word Origin & History
From small + pox, in contrast to greatpox (“syphilis”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 1973, Alfred W. Crosby, The Columbian Exchange, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 42:
"Can't make it in today, Mr. Smithers; I have smallpox. Well it wasn't wiped out in my house!"
— 1998 February 15, David X. Cohen, “Das Bus”, in The Simpsons, season 9, episode 14, spoken by Homer:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The deadly ____ virus was eliminated from the world by vaccines.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Thanks to a global vaccination campaign, ____ was officially declared eradicated in 1980.