Word.ws English Dictionary

pox

US/pɑks/

pox noun: a disease characterized by skin eruptions (especially purulent ones) that may leave pockmarks.

Noun

pox (countable and uncountable, plural poxes)

  1. A disease characterized by skin eruptions (especially purulent ones) that may leave pockmarks.
    1. Syphilis.
  2. (figuratively) A curse.
    • a pox on all their houses
    • A pox on him, he's a cat still.c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Verb

pox (third-person singular simple present poxes, present participle poxing, simple past and past participle poxed)

  1. (dated, transitive) To infect with the pox, or syphilis.
    • Jack had a moſt ſcandalous tongue, and perſuaded Peg that all mankind, beſides himſelf, were pox'd by that ſcarlet-faced whore, †Signiora Bubonia. “As for his brother Lord Peter, the tokens were evident on him, blotches, ſcabs, and the corona. […]”[1750?], Dr. [John] Arbuthnot, “The History of John Bull: Part II, Chapter III”, in The History of John Bull [by Dr. Arbuthnot]. And Poems on ſeveral Occasions by Dr. Jonathan Swift, with Several...

pox meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

pox in Hindi

पॉक्स, पोक्स

pox in Tamil

அம்மை

pox in Marathi

पॉक्स, पोक्स

pox in Urdu

پوکس
More languagesFewer languages
pox in Bengali
বসন্ত bośonto
pox in Telugu
పోక్స్, పొక్స్
pox in Malayalam
പോക്സ്, പൊക്സ്, പോക്സിലേക്ക്
pox in Kannada
ಪೊಕ್ಸ್, ಪೊಕ್ಸ್ಗೆ
pox in Punjabi
ਪੌਕਸ
pox in Gujarati
વસંત vasant
pox in Assamese
আই ai
pox in Nepali
पोक्स, पॉक्स
pox in Persian
آبله âbele
pox in Vietnamese
đậu

Forms of pox

Noun
pluralpoxes
Verb
third-person singular presentpoxes
present participlepoxing
past participlepoxed
pastpoxed

Origin of pox

From the plural of Middle English pocke. See also pock. The curse sense involves metonymy: wishing a literal pox upon someone is the original form of pox-relevant curse, and the word pox itself also came to mean curse.

Words formed from pox

Phrases with pox

Words that rhyme with pox

23 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pox

What does pox mean?
Pox means a disease characterized by skin eruptions (especially purulent ones) that may leave pockmarks.
What is pox in Hindi?
Pox in Hindi is पॉक्स, पोक्स. See Pox meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is pox?
Pox can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce pox?
Pox is pronounced /pɑks/ (US).
What is the plural of pox?
The plural of pox is poxes.

Words near pox in the dictionary

  1. powwowing
  2. powwowism
  3. powwows
  4. Powys
  5. Powyses
  6. pox
  7. pox doctor's clerk
  8. pox parties
  9. pox party
  10. poxed
  11. poxes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pox (page history and authors); pox (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pox (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pox (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pox (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); বসন্ত (Bengali) (page history and authors); pox (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pox (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pox (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); pox (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); વસંત (Gujarati) (page history and authors); আই (Assamese) (page history and authors); pox (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-pox.wav.

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