Hong Kong flu
Hong Kong flu noun: a form of influenza caused by an H3N2 strain of the influenza A virus, descended from H2N2 through antigenic shift, that killed around one million people worldwide during an outbreak in 1968 and 1969.
Noun
Hong Kong flu (uncountable)
- A form of influenza caused by an H3N2 strain of the influenza A virus, descended from H2N2 through antigenic shift, that killed around one million people worldwide during an outbreak in 1968 and 1969.
Origin of Hong Kong flu
So called because it originated in Hong Kong.
Questions about Hong Kong flu
- What does Hong Kong flu mean?
- Hong Kong flu means a form of influenza caused by an H3N2 strain of the influenza A virus, descended from H2N2 through antigenic shift, that killed around one million people worldwide during an outbreak in 1968 and 1969.
- What part of speech is Hong Kong flu?
- Hong Kong flu is a noun.
Words near Hong Kong flu in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Hong Kong flu (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:
Cite this entry: “Hong Kong flu.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hong_kong_flu. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
