Usage: "Rabbit fever" is primarily used as a noun. Its central meaning — a highly infectious disease of rodents (especially rabbits and squirrels) and sometimes transmitted to humans by ticks or flies or by handling infected animals — makes it most effective in contexts where precision matters over a more general alternative.
Watch out: Writers sometimes confuse "rabbit fever" with "tularemia" or "tularaemia" — the words overlap in meaning but differ in nuance or register. Use "rabbit fever" when you specifically mean its core sense rather than defaulting to it as a generic substitute.
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Last reviewed May 2026.
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