Ringworm

//ˈɹɪŋˌwɝm// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A contagious fungal infection of the skin, characterized by ring-shaped discolored patches, covered by vesicles or scales. uncountable, usually

    "In superficial mycoses infection is localised to the skin, the hair, and the nails. An example is ringworm or tinea, an infection of the skin by a dermatophyte."

  2. 2
    infections of the skin or nails caused by fungi and appearing as itching circular patches wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
tineatineaacneacne vulgarisacute articular rheumatismafrican lethargy

Example

More examples

"In superficial mycoses infection is localised to the skin, the hair, and the nails. An example is ringworm or tinea, an infection of the skin by a dermatophyte."

Etymology

From ring + worm, being descriptive of what it looks like.

Related phrases

beard ringwormgray patch ringwormhoneycomb ringwormscalp ringwormsylvatic ringworm

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