n 1  :  an epidemic disease causing a high rate of mortality  :  PESTILENCE <a of cholera>   2  :  a virulent contagious febrile disease that is caused by a bacterium of the genus Yersinia (Y. pestis syn. Pasteurella pestis), that occurs in bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic forms, and that is usu. transmitted from rats to humans by the bite of infected fleas (as in bubonic plague) or directly from person to person (as in pneumonic plague) - called also black death  .
 
 
 
Similar sounding terms:  HPLC  plaque  pli·ca   plug 
 
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