outbreak

Syllables: out·break/ˈaʊtbɹeɪk/

outbreak noun: an eruption; the sudden appearance of a rash, disease, etc.

Noun

outbreak (plural outbreaks)

An eruption; the sudden appearance of a rash, disease, etc.
- Any epidemic outbreak causes understandable panic.
- In a December 5 post on X, CDC Acting Director Jim O’Neill said there was no epidemiological evidence linking the Texas outbreak and the ongoing cases in South Carolina.
  A U.S. Health and Human Services spokesman confirmed that the CDC has found no epidemiological evidence linking ongoing outbreaks...2026 January 9, “US builds case to retain measles elimination status as infections mount”, in CNN, sourced from Reuters, archived from the original on 14 Feb 2026
A sudden increase.
- There has been an outbreak of vandalism at the school.
- One such investigation described how kindness can be contagious. It was sparked by reports of an outbreak of kindness on a cold December morning in 2012.2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR, archived from the original on 02 Dec 2025
(figuratively) An outburst or sudden eruption, especially of violence and mischief.
- There has been an outbreak of broken windows in the street.
Synonyms:

outburst, tumult
Synonym of breakout (“escape from prison”).

Synonyms:

breakout

Verb

outbreak (third-person singular simple present outbreaks, present participle outbreaking, simple past outbroke, past participle outbroken)

(intransitive) To burst out or break forth.

outbreak meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

outbreak in Tamil

திடீர்க்கிளர்ச்சி, கலகம், திடீர் நிகழ்வு

outbreak in Urdu

outbreak: پھیلاو phailāv

More languagesFewer languages

outbreak in Bengali: প্রাদুর্ভাব, আকস্মিক শুরু
outbreak in Malayalam: പൊട്ടിപ്പുറപ്പെടൽ, ആരംഭം, ലഹള, വെടിപ്പ്
outbreak in Kannada: ಸ್ಫೋಟ, ಆಸ್ಫೋಟನೆ, ಕಾಣಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವಿಕೆ
outbreak in Punjabi: ਭੜਕ bhaṛak
outbreak in Gujarati: રોગચાળો ફાટી નીકળ્યો
outbreak in Odia: ପ୍ରାଦୁର୍ଭାବ
outbreak in Nepali: फैलियो प्रकोप
outbreak in Arabic: تَفَشٍّ tafaššin
outbreak in Persian: شیوع šoyu'

Examples of outbreak in a sentence

Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister at the outbreak of World War II.
Next year's tournament is even more in doubt since the virus outbreak.
Some viruses, such as norovirus, cause sporadic outbreaks of gastroenteritis.

All 40 example sentences with outbreak

Synonyms of outbreak

Antonyms

inbreak

Forms of outbreak

Noun
plural	outbreaks
Verb
third-person singular present	outbreaks
present participle	outbreaking
past	outbroke
past participle	outbroken

Plural of outbreak: outbreaks

Origin of outbreak

From Middle English outbreken, oute-breken, from Old English ūtābrecan (“to break out”), equivalent to out- + break. Cognate with Saterland Frisian uutbreeke (“to break out, burst out”), West Frisian útbrekke (“to break out”), Dutch uitbreken (“to break out, burst out”), German ausbrechen (“to break out, erupt”). The noun is cognate with Saterland Frisian Uutbreek (“outbreak”), West Frisian útbrek (“outbreak”), Dutch uitbraak (“outbreak”), and German Ausbruch (“outbreak”), and is comparable to Danish udbrud (“outbreak”), Faroese and Icelandic útbrot (“rash”), Norwegian utbrudd (“outbreak”), and Swedish utbrott (“outbreak”).

Words formed from outbreak

Phrases with outbreak

Questions about outbreak

What does outbreak mean?: Outbreak means an eruption; the sudden appearance of a rash, disease, etc.
What is outbreak in Hindi?: Outbreak in Hindi is प्रकोप (prakop). See Outbreak meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is outbreak?: Outbreak can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce outbreak?: Outbreak is pronounced /ˈaʊtbɹeɪk/.
What is the plural of outbreak?: The plural of outbreak is outbreaks.

Words near outbreak in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-outbreak.ogg.

Cite this entry: “outbreak.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/outbreak. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.