diphtheria
UK/dɪfˈθɪə.ɹi.ə//dɪfˈθɪɹ.i.ə/
diphtheria noun: a serious infectious disease leading to inflammation of mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae.
Noun
diphtheria (countable and uncountable, plural diphtherias)
- A serious infectious disease leading to inflammation of mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae.
- Today diphtheria has become so rare — just five cases in the United States in the most recent decade measured — that many doctors would struggle to recognize it.2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 377
diphtheria meaning in Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati and Tagalog
diphtheria in Tamil
- தொண்டை அழற்சி நோய், திஃப்தீரியா
diphtheria in Kannada
- ಗಂಟಲುನೋವು, ಗಂಟಲಮಾರಿ, ಗಳಚರ್ಮರೋಗ, ಡಿಫ್ತೀರಿಯ
diphtheria in Gujarati
- infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract
- ઘટસર્પ ghaṭsarp
diphtheria in Tagalog
- infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract
- dipterya
More languagesFewer languages
- diphtheria in Arabic
- خُنَاق ḵunāq
- diphtheria in Malay
- difteria
- diphtheria in Indonesian
- difteri
- diphtheria in Persian
- دیفتری difteri
- diphtheria in Thai
- คอตีบ kɔɔ-dtìip
- diphtheria in Vietnamese
- bạch hầu
- diphtheria in Myanmar
- ဆုံဆို့နာ hcumhcui.na
Synonyms of diphtheria
Forms of diphtheria
| plural | diphtherias |
|---|---|
| alternative form | diptheria |
Origin of diphtheria
From French diphtérie (later for a while also spelled diphthérie) in 1857, which was coined in 1855 with the suffix -ie to replace -ite in the previous term diphtérite for the disease because it affects more than one part of the body. The previous term (later for a while also spelled diphthérite) was coined in 1817 by Pierre Bretonneau using Ancient Greek διφθέρα (diphthéra, “prepared hide, leather”) in reference to the tough membrane that forms in the throat. Bretonneau perhaps coined and used the Latin term diphtheritis (with its close imitation of Greek spelling typical of Neolatin) even earlier than the French term diphtérite, which follows the French habit of sometimes spelling t for the Latin transliteration th of Greek θ (but not, for example, in thermomètre).
Words formed from diphtheria
Words that rhyme with diphtheria
- hysteria
- bacteria
- Iberia
- criteria
- washeteria
- apteria
- archaebacteria
- arteria
- asteria
- ceria
- corynebacteria
- cryptomeria
16 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about diphtheria
- What does diphtheria mean?
- Diphtheria means a serious infectious disease leading to inflammation of mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae.
- What is diphtheria in Tamil?
- Diphtheria in Tamil is தொண்டை அழற்சி நோய், திஃப்தீரியா. See Diphtheria meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is diphtheria?
- Diphtheria is a noun.
- How do you pronounce diphtheria?
- Diphtheria is pronounced /dɪfˈθɪə.ɹi.ə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of diphtheria?
- The plural of diphtheria is diphtherias.
Words near diphtheria in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: diphtheria (page history and authors); diphtheria (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); diphtheria (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-diphtheria.wav.
Cite this entry: “diphtheria.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/diphtheria. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.