Definition

1. Noun:

   • A widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.
   • A sudden, widespread increase in the occurrence of a particular undesirable phenomenon.

2. Adjective:

   • Of, relating to, or of the nature of an epidemic.
   • (Especially of a disease) spreading rapidly and extensively by infection and affecting many individuals in an area or population at the same time.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • The city struggled to contain the flu epidemic.
  • There has been an epidemic of car thefts in the neighborhood this year.

• Adjective:

  • The health department issued an epidemic warning.
  • Violence reached epidemic proportions in the region.

Advanced Usage

• "to reach epidemic proportions": to become very widespread and common, often used for negative trends.

  • Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in many developed countries.

• "epidemic curve": a statistical chart used to visualize the onset and progression of an epidemic outbreak.

  • Epidemiologists analyzed the epidemic curve to understand the spread of the virus.

Variants and Related Words

• Epidemiology (n): the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and control of diseases.

  • She works in epidemiology, studying patterns of heart disease.

• Epidemiologist (n): a specialist in epidemiology.

  • The epidemiologist traced the source of the outbreak.

• Pandemic (n/adj): an epidemic that has spread over a large geographic area, such as multiple continents or worldwide.

  • The 1918 influenza was a pandemic.

Synonyms

• Outbreak: a sudden occurrence of something unwelcome, such as war or disease.
• Pestilence: a fatal epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague.
• Plague: a contagious bacterial disease characterized by fever and delirium; also used for a widespread calamity.

Related Phrases

• Epidemic threshold: the critical number or density of susceptible individuals needed for an epidemic to occur.
  • The infection rate has surpassed the epidemic threshold.

Idioms

• Nothing spreads like an epidemic: An idiom highlighting how quickly ideas, trends, or diseases can propagate through a population.
  • Fear and misinformation can spread through a community; nothing spreads like an epidemic.

Adjective

1. (especially of medicine) of disease or anything resembling a disease; attacking or affecting many individuals in a community or a population simultaneously
   • an epidemic outbreak of influenza

Noun

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