Calenture

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A heat stroke or fever, often suffered in the tropics.

    "To returne: in changing so many parallels, the weather increast from warme to raging hot, the Sunne flaming all day, insomuch that Calentures begun to vexe us."

  2. 2
    A delirium occurring from such symptoms, in which a stricken sailor pictures the sea as grassy meadows and wishes to dive overboard into them.

Example

More examples

"To returne: in changing so many parallels, the weather increast from warme to raging hot, the Sunne flaming all day, insomuch that Calentures begun to vexe us."

Etymology

From Middle French calenture, from Spanish calentura.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.