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View synonyms for influenza

influenza

[ in-floo-en-zuh ]

noun

  1. Pathology. an acute, commonly epidemic disease, occurring in several forms, caused by numerous rapidly mutating viral strains and characterized by respiratory symptoms and general prostration. Compare flu.
  2. Veterinary Pathology. an acute, contagious disease occurring in horses and swine, characterized by fever, depression, and catarrhal inflammations of the eyes, nasal passages, and bronchi, and caused by a virus.


influenza

/ ˌɪnflʊˈɛnzə /

noun

  1. informal.
    a highly contagious and often epidemic viral disease characterized by fever, prostration, muscular aches and pains, and inflammation of the respiratory passages Also calledgrippeflu


influenza

/ ĭn′flo̅o̅-ĕn /

  1. A highly contagious infectious disease that is caused by any of various viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae and is characterized by fever, respiratory symptoms, fatigue, and muscle pain. It commonly occurs in epidemics, one of which killed 20 million people between 1917 and 1919.


influenza

  1. Commonly called the flu; an acute and infectious disease of the respiratory system caused by a virus and characterized by fever, muscle pain, headache, and inflammation of the mucous membranes in the respiratory tract .


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Derived Forms

  • ˌinfluˈenzal, adjective

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Other Words From

  • influ·enzal adjective
  • influ·enza·like adjective
  • postin·flu·enzal adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of influenza1

1735–45; < Italian < Medieval Latin influentia influence

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Word History and Origins

Origin of influenza1

C18: from Italian, literally: influence , hence, incursion, epidemic (first applied to influenza in 1743)

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Word History

Since ancient times, influenza has periodically swept the world. Until recently, people could not tell how this illness, which we call the flu, could spread so widely. Before people knew that organisms cause disease, they thought the stars influenced the spread of influenza. Influenza comes ultimately from the Latin word influentia, meaning “influence of the stars.” Today, however, the stars are no longer blamed for the flu. Inhaling influenza viruses causes the spread of the illness.

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Example Sentences

With enough changing of the influenza RNA over time, the vaccine no longer provokes the “right” immune response.

Though this too is debatable given that 25,000 to 40,000 people a year die of influenza—the vast majority of them unvaccinated.

And right now in the US, there is an FDA-approved inhaled vaccine to prevent influenza called FluMist.

Unlike influenza, it is incapable of traveling through tiny microscopic particles.

These new cases, both real and merely suspected, are coming right as we approach the cusp of influenza season.

The next day, as it happened, I had to go to bed with influenza, and wrote him that I might not get out for a week.

For example, a dreadful influenza epidemic occurred followed by a severe fuel shortage due to a railroad strike.

I am still alive, and in spite of the influenza perfectly well.

After the other seven were almost wholly recovered Henry lay down to influenza on his own account.

Influenza, called popularly the grippe, is caused by the bacillus influenzae, which was isolated by Pfeiffer in 1891.

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Word of the Day

inveterate

[in-vet-er-it ]

Meaning and examples

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influentialinflux