Dysentery
//ˈdɪs.ənˌtɛɹ.i// noun
noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A disease characterised by inflammation of the intestines, especially the colon (large intestine), accompanied by pus (white blood cells) in the feces, fever, pain in the abdomen, high-volume diarrhea, and possible blood in the feces. countable, uncountable
"We ate, we drank, and we were merry / and we got typhoid and dysentery."
- 2 an infection of the intestines marked by severe diarrhea wordnet
- 3 Diarrhea. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"He died of honorable dysentery."
Etymology
From Middle English dissenterie, from Old French dissenterie, from Latin dysenteria, from Ancient Greek δυσεντερία (dusentería), from δυσ- (dus-, “bad”) + ἔντερα (éntera, “bowels”).
Related phrases
More for "dysentery"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.