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Glite Dictionary
Ebola fever

Ebola fever

1 4.6
A very serious disease that causes high fever, internal bleeding, and often death
  • noun
  • /ɪˈboʊlə ˈfiːvər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : fiebre de Ébola
  • During the Ebola fever outbreak, health workers wore protective gear to prevent contracting the virus.

Examples

  • The symptoms of Ebola fever include high fever, severe headaches, and internal bleeding.

  • These data also suggest potential avenues of exploration regarding the routes of infection for index human cases of Ebola fever, which remain a mystery.

    Academic text (1995)

  • In West Africa, the outbreak of Ebola fever led to a great loss of life and significant public health challenges.

Synonyms

Ebola
vsEbola fever
  • Specialized
4.8

A serious disease that causes fever and bleeding inside the body and spreads through body fluids

emphasizes occurrence in Africa rather than transmission focus
Ebola hemorrhagic fever
vsEbola fever
  • Specialized
5.8

A severe, often deadly virus disease that causes high fever, bleeding, and spreads by contact with body fluids

highlights usual African occurrence rather than organ failure or spread

Surface Forms

Ebola fever singular
Ebola fevers plural

Morphology

Ebola + fever

The term 'Ebola fever' is directly compositional: 'Ebola' identifies the infectious agent/disease and 'fever' names the symptom, so the meaning 'fever caused by Ebola' follows straightforwardly from the constituents. Disease-naming by agent + symptom is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Ebola fever is named after the Ebola River in Africa, because the virus was first found near that river. The name joins the place (Ebola) and the symptom (fever), so it refers to the serious 'fever' or illness caused by that virus.