Look up pestilence in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A pestilence is any virulent and highly infectious disease that can cause an epidemic or even a pandemic. The word can also be used about parasites causing large scale sickness and death, such as Guinea worm. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (from wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... This false-colored electron micrograph shows a malaria sporozoite migrating through the midgut epithelia. ... In epidemiology, an epidemic (from [[Latin language] epi- upon + demos people) is a disease that appears as new cases in a given human population, during a given period, at a rate that substantially exceeds what is expected, based on recent experience (the number of new cases in the population during... A pandemic (from Greek παν pan all + δήμος demos people) is an epidemic (an outbreak of an infectious disease) that spreads across a large region (example a continent), or even worldwide. ... A parasite is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life in or on the living tissue of a host organism and which causes harm to the host without immediately killing it. ... Dracunculiasis, more commonly known as Guinea Worm Disease (GWD), is a preventable infection caused by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis. ...

Originally the word referred to the disease plague, which is called pestis in Latin. Bubonic plague is the best-known variant of the deadly infectious disease, plague, which is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis. ...

The 14th-century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer spoke of "pestilence" in "The Pardoner's Tale", referring to the Black Death: This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ... This article is about the English as an ethnic group and nation. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Illustration of the Black Death from the Toggenburg Bible (1411) The Black Death, or Black Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history. ...

Ther cam a privee theef men clepeth Deeth,

That in this contree al the peple sleeth,

And with his spere he smoot his herte atwo,

And wente his wey withouten wordes mo.

He hath a thousand slayn this pestilence.

See also

• Disease
• Epidemic
• Pandemic
• List of historical plagues

The term disease refers to an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs function. ... In epidemiology, an epidemic (from [[Latin language] epi- upon + demos people) is a disease that appears as new cases in a given human population, during a given period, at a rate that substantially exceeds what is expected, based on recent experience (the number of new cases in the population during... A pandemic (from Greek παν pan all + δήμος demos people) is an epidemic (an outbreak of an infectious disease) that spreads across a large region (example a continent), or even worldwide. ... The term plague, in human history, refers to an epidemic disease causing a high rate of mortality, i. ...

Trivia

The Band From First To Last has a song called "Ride The Wings of Pestilence".

External links

• Article in International Herald Tribune 22 March 2006, describing Guinea worm as a pestilence (Linked 23 April 2006)