leprosy
/ˈlɛpɹəsi/
leprosy noun: 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. Also the ellipsis of murine leprosy or feline leprosy.
Noun
leprosy (usually uncountable, plural leprosies)
- 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.
- Then is it surely a leprosy1535, Myles Coverdale, Bible, Lev. 8:3
- The great London doctors knew nothing about leprosy and cared less.1925, Frank Harris, My Life and Loves, volume III, page 183
- Synonyms:
- Hansensiasis, Hansen's disease, lepra, mesel, measles, elephantiasis, Greek elephantiasis, Greek leprosy, Greek lepra, leprosity
- 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.
- 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.
- Synonym of mange and glanders in horses.
- Synonyms:
- mange and glanders in horses
- Synonym of leprosarium: a place for the housing of lepers in isolation from the rest of society.
- Synonyms:
- leprosarium
Also used as
leprosy is also the ellipsis of murine leprosy or feline leprosy.
leprosy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
leprosy in Hindi
- infectious disease caused by M. leprae
- कुष्ठ kuṣṭh, कोढ़ koṛh, कुष्ठरोग kuṣṭharog
leprosy in Tamil
- infectious disease caused by M. leprae
- தொழு நோய் toḻu nōy
leprosy in Marathi
- कुष्ठरोग, कुष्ठ रोग, कुष्ठरोगाचा
leprosy in Urdu
- infectious disease caused by M. leprae
- جذام juzām
More languagesFewer languages
- leprosy in Bengali
- কুষ্ঠ kuśṭho, কুঠ kuṭh
- leprosy in Telugu
- కుష్టు వ్యాధి kuṣṭu vyādhi
- leprosy in Malayalam
- കുഷ്ഠം kuṣṭhaṁ
- leprosy in Kannada
- ಕುಷ್ಠ kuṣṭha
- leprosy in Punjabi
- ਕੋਢ਼
- leprosy in Gujarati
- કોઢ koḍh
- leprosy in Odia
- କୁଷ୍ଠ ରୋଗ, କୁଷ୍ଠରୋଗ
- leprosy in Sanskrit
- कुष्ठरोग kuṣṭharoga
- leprosy in Sinhala
- ලාදුරු lāduru
- leprosy in Nepali
- कुष्ठ रोग, कुष्ठरोग, कोढ़ रोग
- leprosy in Tagalog
- ketong
- leprosy in Arabic
- جُذَام juḏām
- leprosy in Malay
- kusta, penyakit kusta
- leprosy in Indonesian
- kusta, penyakit kusta, lepra
- leprosy in Persian
- خوره xore, جذام jozâm, داءالاسد dā'olasad, لوری lūrī
- leprosy in Thai
- เรื้อน rʉ́ʉan, ไทกอ tai-gɔɔ, กุฏฐัง gùt-tǎng, ขี้ทูด kîi-tûut
- leprosy in Vietnamese
- phong, cùi, hủi
- leprosy in Myanmar
- နူနာ nuna, အနာကြီးရောဂါ a.na-kri:rau:ga, အရေပြားရောဂါ a.re-pra:rau:ga
- Dhivehi
- ޖުޒާމު ބަލި juzāmu bali
Examples of leprosy in a sentence
- The new drug—diaminodiphenylsulphone... offers the first certain cure... and leprosy can be cured in six months1954, Elspeth J. Huxley, Four Guineas, page 267:
- If I had leprosy, there'd be a cable: "Gee, kid, tough.1972, Jay Presson Allen, Cabaret, spoken by Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli):
Synonyms of leprosy
- Hansensiasis
- Hansen's disease
- mesel
- measles
- elephantiasis
- Greek elephantiasis
- Greek leprosy
- Greek lepra
- leprosity
- bastard scurvy
4 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- mange and glanders in horses
- leprosarium
- lepra
- leper
Forms of leprosy
| plural | leprosies |
|---|
Origin of leprosy
From 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. The shift of sense from psoriasis to Hansen's disease occurred in large part from the use of λέπρα (lépra) to translate Hebrew צרעת (“tzaraath”) in the Septuagint and its subsequent use in the New Testament and Late Latin.
Words formed from leprosy
- antileprosy
- antileprotic
- Arabian leprosy
- bastard leprosy
- feline leprosy
- fretting leprosy
- Greek leprosy
- histoid leprosy
- leproid
- lepromatoid leprosy
- lepromatous leprosy
- leprophobia
- leprosied
- leprosity
- leprostatic
- leprosy bacilus
- leprosylike
- leprosy village
- leprotic
- multibacillary leprosy
- murine leprosy
- neural leprosy
- nodular leprosy
- paucibacillary leprosy
- rat leprosy
- tuberculoid leprosy
- white leprosy
Questions about leprosy
- What does leprosy mean?
- Leprosy means 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.
- What is leprosy in Hindi?
- Leprosy in Hindi is कुष्ठ (kuṣṭh), कोढ़ (koṛh), कुष्ठरोग (kuṣṭharog). See Leprosy meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use leprosy in a sentence?
- The new drug—diaminodiphenylsulphone... offers the first certain cure... and leprosy can be cured in six months
- What part of speech is leprosy?
- Leprosy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce leprosy?
- Leprosy is pronounced /ˈlɛpɹəsi/.
- What is the plural of leprosy?
- The plural of leprosy is leprosies.
Words near leprosy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: leprosy (page history and authors); leprosy (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); leprosy (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); leprosy (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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)-Vealhurl-leprosy.wav.
Cite this entry: “leprosy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/leprosy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.