What does "pandemic" mean?
A pandemic disease; a disease that affects a wide geographical area and a large proportion of the population.
Pandemic
/pænˈdɛmɪk/ adj, noun
adj, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A pandemic disease; a disease that affects a wide geographical area and a large proportion of the population.
- Grammar: pandemic is listed as adj, noun.
- Nearest alternatives: all encompassing, ambulatory plague, average, besetting.
- Useful contrasts: specific, endemic, localized.
- Usage evidence: The World Health Organization (WHO) lists the Nipah virus as a developing disease that could cause a global pandemic. Ebola and Zika are also on this list.
How to use "pandemic"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "pandemic" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "pandemic" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "pandemic" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "pandemic" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "pandemic" is acting as adj, noun in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "all encompassing" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
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Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "pandemic", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A pandemic disease; a disease that affects a wide geographical area and a large proportion of the population.
"Those diseases which have some strong resemblance in their general characters, and attack many individuals in a large extent of country at about the same time, are commonly called epidemics. If all, or about all the inhabitants of a country be similarly attacked, at or near the same time, with a particular complaint, it is more properly called a pandemic."
- 2 an epidemic that is geographically widespread; occurring throughout a region or even throughout the world wordnet
- 3 A pandemic disease; a disease that affects a wide geographical area and a large proportion of the population.; The COVID-19 pandemic. specifically
Adjective
- 1 Of a disease: epidemic over a wide geographical area and affecting a large proportion of the population; also, of or pertaining to a disease of this nature.
"The chaotic breakdown of public health as World War I dragged on is widely recognized as exacerbating the disease burden of the pandemic outbreak of influenza in 1918."
- 2 Alternative letter-case form of Pandemic (“of Aphrodite Pandemos, the earthly aspect of the Greek goddess of beauty and love Aphrodite and her Roman counterpart Venus, as contrasted with the heavenly aspect known as Aphrodite Urania: earthly, physical, sensual.”). Greek, Roman, alt-of, not-comparable, rare
"The meeting of Venus with Phoebe distinguishes her roles: the business of Venus in her pandemic form is to ensure the immortality of the kinds. Her Garden has the voluptuousness necessary to ensure this, and this is 'the first seminarie / Of all things that are borne to live and die / According to their kindes.' [Quoting from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene.]"
- 3 Of Aphrodite Pandemos, the earthly aspect of the Greek goddess of beauty and love Aphrodite and her Roman counterpart Venus, as contrasted with the heavenly aspect known as Aphrodite Urania: earthly, physical, sensual. Greek, Roman, not-comparable
"[page 64] The Love, therefore, which attends upon Venus Pandemos is, in truth, common to the vulgar, and presides over transient and fortuitous connexions, and is worshipped by the least excellent of mankind. The votaries of this deity seek the body rather than the soul, and the ignorant rather than the wise, disdaining all that is honourable and lovely, and considering how they shall best satisfy their sensual necessities. […] [page 67] That Pandemic lover who loves rather the body than the soul is worthless, nor can be constant and consistent, since he has placed his affections on that which has no stability."
- 4 General, widespread. derogatory, usually
"A former age insisted upon the efficacy of scarlet curtains and red broad-cloth in small-pox—a succeeding age thinks it has proved the practice superstitious,—or they refer to it fancy. Now that said fancy is an element in the constitution of man, possibly more powerful in its effects upon the cure or aggravation of disease, than all the drugs in all the chemists' laboratories in all the towns of the world. For it is universal and not partial, pandemic and not solitary."
Adjective
- 1 existing everywhere wordnet
- 2 epidemic over a wide geographical area wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
"The World Health Organization (WHO) lists the Nipah virus as a developing disease that could cause a global pandemic. Ebola and Zika are also on this list."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "pandemic"?
Common synonyms include: all encompassing, ambulatory plague, average, besetting, black death, black plague.
How do you use "pandemic" in a sentence?
The World Health Organization (WHO) lists the Nipah virus as a developing disease that could cause a global pandemic. Ebola and Zika are also on this list.
How do you pronounce "pandemic"?
Pronounced /pænˈdɛmɪk/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Ancient Greek πάνδημος (pándēmos, “of or belonging to all the people, public”) + English -ic (suffix forming adjectives from nouns with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’). πάνδημος is derived from παν- (pan-, prefix meaning ‘all, every’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect, shepherd”)) + δῆμος (dêmos, “the common people; free citizens, sovereign people”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- (“to divide, share”)). Compare Late Latin pandēmus (“affecting all the people, general, public”).
Etymology 2
See Pandemic.
Etymology 3
From Ancient Greek Ἀφροδίτη Πάνδημος (Aphrodítē Pándēmos, “Aphrodite Pandemos”), from πάνδημος (pándēmos, “of or belonging to all the people, public”) + English -ic (suffix forming adjectives from nouns with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’). See further at pandemic (etymology 1).