A widespread outbreak of an infectious disease; many people are infected at the same time.

Roget 655: disease; illness, sickness etc. adj.; ailing &c.; all the ills that flesh is heir to" [Hamlet]; morbidity, morbosity^†; infirmity, ailment, indisposition; complaint, disorder, malady; distemper, distemperature^†.    visitation, attack, seizure, stroke, fit.    delicacy, loss of health, invalidation, cachexy^†; cachexia [Med.], atrophy, marasmus^†; indigestion, dyspepsia; decay etc. (deterioration) 659; decline, consumption, palsy, paralysis, prostration.    taint, pollution, infection, sepsis, septicity^†, infestation; epidemic, pandemic, endemic, epizootic; murrain, plague, pestilence, pox.    sore, ulcer, abscess, fester, boil; pimple, wen etc. (swelling) 250; carbuncle, gathering, imposthume^†, peccant humor, issue; rot, canker, cold sore, fever sore; cancer, carcinoma, leukemia, neoplastic disease, malignancy, tumor; caries, mortification, corruption, gangrene, sphacelus^†, sphacelation^†, leprosy; eruption, rash, breaking out.    fever, temperature, calenture^†; inflammation.    ague, angina pectoris [Lat.], appendicitis; Asiatic cholera^†, spasmodic cholera; biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague; blennorrhagia^†, blennorrhoea^†; blood poisoning, bloodstroke^†, bloody flux, brash; breakbone fever^†, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever; heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy [Med.]; hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis; bronchocele [Med.], canker rash, cardialgia [Med.], carditis [Med.], endocarditis [Med.]; cholera, asphyxia; chlorosis, chorea, cynanche^†, dartre [Fr.]; enanthem^†, enanthema^†; erysipelas; exanthem^†, exanthema; gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness; grip, grippe, influenza, flu; hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw; measles, mumps^†, polio; necrosis, pertussis, phthisis^†, pneumonia, psora^†, pyaemia^†, pyrosis [Med.], quinsy, rachitis^†, ringworm, rubeola, St.    Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma^†, syntexis^†, tetanus, tetter^†, tonsillitis, tonsilitis^†, tracheocele [Med.], trachoma, trismus [Med.], varicella [Med.], varicosis [Med.], variola [Med.], water qualm, whooping cough; yellow fever, yellow jack.    fatal disease etc. (hopeless) 859; dangerous illness, galloping consumption, churchyard cough; general breaking up, break up of the system.    [Disease of mind] idiocy etc. 499; insanity etc. 503.    martyr to disease; cripple; the halt the lame and the blind;" valetudinary^†, valetudinarian; invalid, patient, case; sickroom, sick-chamber.    [Science of disease] pathology, etiology, nosology^†.    [Veterinary] anthrax, bighead; blackleg, blackquarter^†; cattle plague, glanders^†, mange, scrapie, milk sickness; heartworm, feline leukemia, roundworms; quarter-evil, quarter-ill; rinderpest.    [disease-causing agents] virus, bacterium, bacteria.    [types of viruses] DNA virus; RNA virus.    [RNA viruses] rhinovirus; rhabdovirus; picornavirus.    [DNA viruses] herpesvirus; cytomegalovirus, CMV; human immunodefficiency virus, HIV.    ... show more

Dutch: epidemisch, epidemie
Polish: epidemia, zaraza

especially of medicine Of disease or anything resembling a disease; attacking or affecting many individuals in a community or a population simultaneously.

Roget 657: insalubrious; unhealthy, unwholesome; noxious, noisome; morbific^†, morbiferous^†; mephitic, septic, azotic^†, deleterious; pestilent, pestiferous, pestilential; virulent, venomous, envenomed; poisonous, toxic, toxiferous^†, teratogenic; narcotic.    contagious, infectious, catching, taking, epidemic, zymotic^†; epizootic.    innutritious^†, indigestible, ungenial; uncongenial etc. (disagreeing) 24.    deadly etc. (killing) 361.    ... show more

Roget 655: diseased; ailing etc. v.; ill, ill of; taken ill, seized with; indisposed, unwell, sick, squeamish, poorly, seedy; affected with illness, afflicted with illness; laid up, confined, bedridden, invalided, in hospital, on the sick list; out of health, out of sorts; under the weather [U.S.]; valetudinary^†.    unsound, unhealthy; sickly, morbid, morbose^†, healthless^†, infirm, chlorotic [Med.], unbraced^†.    drooping, flagging, lame, crippled, halting.    morbid, tainted, vitiated, peccant, contaminated, poisoned, tabid^†, mangy, leprous, cankered; rotten, rotten to the core, rotten at the core; withered, palsied, paralytic; dyspeptic; luetic^†, pneumonic, pulmonic [Med.], phthisic^†, rachitic; syntectic^†, syntectical^†; tabetic^†, varicose.    touched in the wind, broken-winded, spavined, gasping; hors de combat etc. (useless) 645 [Fr.].    weakly, weakened etc. (weak) 160; decrepit; decayed etc. (deteriorated) 659; incurable etc. (hopeless) 859; in declining health; cranky; in a bad way, in danger, prostrate; moribund etc. (death) 360.    morbific etc. 657^†; epidemic, endemic; zymotic^†.    ... show more

Roget 73: unassembled etc. (assemble) etc. 72; dispersed etc. v.; sparse, dispread, broadcast, sporadic, widespread; epidemic etc. (general) 78; adrift, stray; disheveled, streaming.    ... show more

Roget 78: general, generic, collective; broad, comprehensive, sweeping; encyclopedical^†, widespread etc. (dispersed) 73.    universal; catholic, catholical^†; common, worldwide; ecumenical, oecumenical^†; transcendental; prevalent, prevailing, rife, epidemic, besetting; all over, covered with.    Pan-American, Anglican^†, Pan-Hellenic, Pan-Germanic, slavic; panharmonic^†.    every, all; unspecified, impersonal.    customary etc. (habitual) 613.    ... show more

Polish: nagminny, epidemiczny