Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1300-1400
Language: Old French
Origin: plage, from Latin plaga 'hit, wound'

plague

1 noun
     
Related topics: Illness and Disability
plague1
1 [countable]MI a disease that causes death and spreads quickly to a large number of people:
drops in population levels due to plagues and famines
2 [uncountable] also the plagueMI a very infectious disease that produces high fever and swollen places on the body, and often leads to death, especially bubonic plague [↪ Black Death]:
The plague caused 100,000 deaths in London alone in the 1600s.
3

a plague of rats/locusts etc

an uncontrolled and harmful increase in the numbers of a particular animal or insect:
A plague of squirrels is threatening our forests.

➔ avoid somebody/something like the plague

at avoid (2)
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
Dictionary pictures of the day
Do you know what each of these is called?
What is the word for picture 1? What is the word for picture 2? What is the word for picture 3? What is the word for picture 4?
Click on any of the pictures above to find out what it is called.

Explore our topic dictionary

Browse the dictionary