Pestiferous

//ˌpɛsˈtɪfəɹəs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    containing organisms that cause contagious diseases

    "because he hath vouchsafed to preserue our nation from such fountains, from serpents and venemous wormes, & from al other pestiferous & contagious creatures."

  2. 2
    annoying, vexatious

    "No, prelate; such is thy audacious wickedness, / Thy lewd, pestiferous, and dissentious pranks, / As very infants prattle of thy pride."

Adjective
  1. 1
    causing irritation or annoyance wordnet
  2. 2
    tending to corrupt or pervert wordnet
  3. 3
    likely to spread and cause an epidemic disease wordnet
  4. 4
    contaminated with infecting organisms wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
pestilentpestilentialsepticaggravatingannoyingannoying

Example

More examples

"because he hath vouchsafed to preserue our nation from such fountains, from serpents and venemous wormes, & from al other pestiferous & contagious creatures."

Etymology

Mid 15th century, in sense “mischievous, pernicious”, from Latin pestiferus (“bearing plague”), from pestifer, from pestis (“plague”) + ferre (“carry”) (see infer). By surface analysis, pest + -i- (“bearing, carrying”) + -ferous.

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