pandemic

Syllables: pan·dem·ic/pænˈdɛmɪk/US/pænˈdɛmɪk/

pandemic adjective: of a disease: epidemic over a wide geographical area and affecting a large proportion of the population; also, of or pertaining to a disease of this nature. Also the alternative letter-case form of Pandemic.

Image: Daderot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective (1)

pandemic (comparative more pandemic, superlative most pandemic)

Of a disease: epidemic over a wide geographical area and affecting a large proportion of the population; also, of or pertaining to a disease of this nature.
- The chaotic breakdown of public health as World War I dragged on is widely recognized as exacerbating the disease burden of the pandemic outbreak of influenza in 1918.
- Among diſeaſes, ſome do more generally haunt a Country, by reaſon of a certain property in the air, produced through a particular influence of the climat; and the fuming of malign ſtreams out of the earth; whence ſuch diſeaſes are termed Endemick or Pandemick: Others, though they are general, do...[[1672?], Gideon Harvey, “Of the Original and Contagion of Consumptions”, in Morbus Anglicus, or A Theoretick and Practical Discourse of Consumptions, and Hypochondriack Melancholy. […], London...
Synonyms:

pandemial, pandemical, panepidemic

Antonyms:

nonpandemic
(derogatory, usually) General, widespread.
- A former age insisted upon the efficacy of scarlet curtains and red broad-cloth in small-pox—a succeeding age thinks it has proved the practice superstitious,—or they refer to it fancy. Now that said fancy is an element in the constitution of man, possibly more powerful in its effects upon the cure...1844 May, “Art. VI.—On Superstitions Connected with the History and Practice of Medicine and Surgery. By John Joseph Pettigrew, […] London: Churchill. [book review]”, in The Monthly Review, volumes...
- Allow Class[ical] Ō and Ǔ to merge into a single phoneme, namely /o/, [...] and the specimens under investigation will emerge as /nodo/, /nokʼe/, and /noro/, the last-mentioned driven by an early pandemic tendency to change into /nora/ as, inherently, the designation of a female.1987, Yakov Malkiel, “The Transmission into Romance of Latin NŌDUS, NǓPTIAE, NǓRUS, and NǓX: Diachronic Interplay of Phonetic and Semantic Analogies”, in General Linguistics, volume 27, number 4...
Synonyms:

common, ubiquitous, universal, disseminated, far-flung, extensive, pervasive, predominant, prevailing, prevalent

Noun

pandemic (plural pandemics)

A pandemic disease; a disease that affects a wide geographical area and a large proportion of the population.
- Those diseases which have some strong resemblance in their general characters, and attack many individuals in a large extent of country at about the same time, are commonly called epidemics. If all, or about all the inhabitants of a country be similarly attacked, at or near the same time, with a...1832 September 5, J. A. Allen, “Epidemics. Remarks on the Etiology and Character of Epidemics.”, in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, volume VII, number 4, Boston, Mass.: Printed and published...
- The full and correct theory of influenza will not be reached by the great pandemics only. On the other hand some very localized epidemics may prove to be signal instances for the pathology, although they do not bear upon the source of the great historic waves of influenza.1894, Charles Creighton, “Influenzas and Epidemic Agues”, in A History of Epidemics in Britain, volume II (From the Extinction of Plague to the Present Time), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: At the...
Synonyms:

pandemia
1. (specifically) The COVID-19 pandemic.

Adjective (2) capitalized: Pandemic

Pandemic (not comparable)

(Greek, Roman) Of Aphrodite Pandemos, the earthly aspect of the Greek goddess of beauty and love Aphrodite and her Roman counterpart Venus, as contrasted with the heavenly aspect known as Aphrodite Urania: earthly, physical, sensual.
- [page 64] The Love, therefore, which attends upon Venus Pandemos is, in truth, common to the vulgar, and presides over transient and fortuitous connexions, and is worshipped by the least excellent of mankind. The votaries of this deity seek the body rather than the soul, and the ignorant rather...a. 1822, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Banquet. Translated from Plato.”, in Richard Herne Shepherd, editor, The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley: From the Original Editions […] In Two Volumes, volume...
- The same distinction between an Uranian and a Pandemic Venus runs, as all those who have any acquaintance with the sculptures of the Greeks know, through their whole art. […] The latter [the Capitoline Venus] is the true Pandemic Venus, the perfect type of voluptuousness, soulless, animal beauty,—...1840 January–June, “Shelley’s Translation of ‘The Banquet’ of Plato”, in The Monthly Chronicle; a National Journal of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume V, London: Longman, Orme, Brown...
Synonyms:

Pandemian

Antonyms:

heavenly, spiritual, Uranian

Also used as

pandemic is also the alternative letter-case form of Pandemic.

pandemic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

pandemic in Hindi

epidemic over a wide geographical area and affecting a large proportion of the population: सर्वव्यापी महामारी sarvavyāpī mahāmārī
disease that affects a wide geographical area and a large proportion of the population: महामारी mahāmārī

pandemic in Tamil

disease that affects a wide geographical area and a large proportion of the population: பெருந்தொற்று peruntoṟṟu

pandemic in Marathi

महामारी, साथीची महामारी

pandemic in Urdu

disease that affects a wide geographical area and a large proportion of the population: عالَم گِیر وَبا 'ālam gīr vabā, عالَمی وَبا 'ālamī vabā

More languagesFewer languages

pandemic in Bengali: অতিমারী otimari
pandemic in Telugu: మహామ్మారి mahāmmāri
pandemic in Malayalam: മഹാമാരി, മഹാവ്യാധി
pandemic in Punjabi: ਮਹਾਮਾਰੀ
pandemic in Gujarati: રોગચાળો, મહામારી, રોગચાળા
pandemic in Odia: ମହାମାରୀ
pandemic in Nepali: महामारी, महामारीले
pandemic in Tagalog: pandemya
pandemic in Arabic: جَائِحَة jāʔiḥa
pandemic in Malay: pandemik
pandemic in Indonesian: pandemi
pandemic in Thai: ระบาดทั่ว, โรคระบาดทั่ว rôok-rá-bàat-tûua
pandemic in Vietnamese: đại dịch
pandemic in Myanmar: ကမ္ဘာကပ်ရောဂါ kambhakap-rau:ga

Examples of pandemic in a sentence

For it is universal and not partial, pandemic and not solitary.1844 May, “Art. VI.—On Superstitions Connected with the History and Practice of Medicine and Surgery. By John Joseph Pettigrew, […] London...
If all, or about all the inhabitants of a country be similarly attacked, at or near the same time, with a particular complaint, it is more properly called a pandemic.1832 September 5, J. A. Allen, “Epidemics. Remarks on the Etiology and Character of Epidemics.”, in The Boston Medical and Surgical...
The American pandemic of men's violence against women is one of the greatest tragedies of our time.2000, Jackson Katz, “The Sounds of Silence: Notes on the Personal Politics of Men’s Leadership in Gender-based Violence Prevention...
What I spend a lot of time worrying about are things like pandemics.2016 October, Scott Dadich, quoting Barack Obama, “Barack Obama Talks AI, Robo Cars, and the Future of the World”, in Wired, →ISSN:

All 40 example sentences with pandemic

Synonyms of pandemic

10 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of pandemic

Forms of pandemic

Adjective
comparative	more pandemic
superlative	most pandemic
alternative form	pandemic
Noun
plural	pandemics

Origin of pandemic

From Ancient Greek πάνδημος (pándēmos, “of or belonging to all the people, public”) + English -ic (suffix forming adjectives from nouns with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’). πάνδημος is derived from παν- (pan-, prefix meaning ‘all, every’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect, shepherd”)) + δῆμος (dêmos, “the common people; free citizens, sovereign people”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- (“to divide, share”)). Compare Late Latin pandēmus (“affecting all the people, general, public”).

See Pandemic.

From Ancient Greek Ἀφροδίτη Πάνδημος (Aphrodítē Pándēmos, “Aphrodite Pandemos”), from πάνδημος (pándēmos, “of or belonging to all the people, public”) + English -ic (suffix forming adjectives from nouns with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’). See further at pandemic (etymology 1).

Words formed from pandemic

Phrases with pandemic

pandemic babies

Words that rhyme with pandemic

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pandemic

What does pandemic mean?: Pandemic means of a disease: epidemic over a wide geographical area and affecting a large proportion of the population; also, of or pertaining to a disease of this nature.
What is pandemic in Hindi?: Pandemic in Hindi is सर्वव्यापी महामारी (sarvavyāpī mahāmārī), महामारी (mahāmārī). See Pandemic meaning in Hindi.
How do you use pandemic in a sentence?: For it is universal and not partial, pandemic and not solitary.
What part of speech is pandemic?: Pandemic can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce pandemic?: Pandemic is pronounced /pænˈdɛmɪk/ (UK).

Words near pandemic in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: pandemic (page history and authors); Pandemic (page history and authors); pandemic (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pandemic (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pandemic (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pandemic (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pandemic (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pandemic (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pandemic.wav.

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