leprosy
An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, gradually…An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, gradually producing nerve damage and patches of skin necrosis and historically handled by permanently quarantining its sufferers.
Recorded UK: Speaker: Vealhurl Recorder: Vealhurl, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
» Tom has leprosy.
CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRTranslations
9 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Examples
7 sentencesTom has leprosy.
His skin lesions are caused by leprosy.
Carlos touched leprosy patients without wearing gloves.
Meaning
5 senses(uncountable, usually)An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, gradually producing nerve damage and patches of skin necrosis and historically handled by permanently quarantining its sufferers.
Lepra, Aussatz
прока́заprokáza, ле́праlépra
прока́заprokáza, ле́праlépra
(figuratively, uncountable, usually)Anything considered similarly permanent, harmful, and communicable, particularly when such a thing should be handled by avoidance or isolation of its victims.
Sin is a spiritual leprosy.
(dated, proscribed, uncountable, usually)Similar contagious skin diseases causing light patches of scaly skin, particularly psoriasis, syphilis, vitiligo, scabies, and (biblical) the various diseases considered "tzaraath" in the Old Testament.
More meanings 2
A contagious disease causing similar effects in animals, particularly
(obsolete, uncountable, usually)Synonym of mange and glanders in horses.
(obsolete, rare, uncountable, usually)Synonym of leprosarium: a place for the housing of lepers in isolation from the rest of society.
- chronic granulomatous communicable disease occurring in tropical and subtropical regions; characterized by inflamed nodules beneath the skin and wasting of body parts; caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae
Origin
From Norman leprosie, from Middle French leprosie (“leprosy & similar skin diseases”), proFrom Norman leprosie, from Middle French leprosie (“leprosy & similar skin diseases”), probably from leprous (“leprous”) + -ie (“-y”) but possibly from Medieval Latin leprōsia (leprōsus + -ia) although this only historically attested in reference to leprosariums.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: leprosies| Singular | leprosy |
|---|
uncountable
Synonyms
14 synonyms- chronic granulomatous communicable disease occurring in tropical and subtropical regions; characterized by inflamed nodules beneath the skin and wasting of body parts; caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae:Hansen-ap-s disease
Word family
21 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.