diphtheria
8
7.8
- noun
- /dɪfˈθɪr.i.ə/
- Specialized
- The leading killers were then influenza, pneumonia, diphtheria, and gastrointestinal infection.
- diphtheria and tetanus
- diphtheria and pertussis
- diphtheria toxoid
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Watch on YouTubeHe gets sick, he gets dysentery and diphtheria.
- He gets sick, he gets dysentery and diphtheria.
- Julie knows best that we don't see polio, we don't see diphtheria, we don't see an awful lot of childhood diseases that we've taken care of.
Examples
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Nineteen-year-old Wolfram had not long been in the war-shattered Crimea before he contracted diphtheria, collapsing into a coma soon afterwards.
Academic text (2011) -
As a child, Mrs. A had caught diphtheria and measles, but had not had whooping cough or pneumonia.
Academic text (2011) -
You have diphtheria, but it is being treated.
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Within five years, Suha was dead, probably from diphtheria, and two weeks later his son died from the same disease.
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She had three little children, lost them all to the diphtheria in three days.
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Mr. Svenning has come down with a sudden case of diphtheria.
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Her illness was diphtheria.
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At the time, the treatment of diphtheria required a prohibitively expensive antitoxin imported from the United States.
Academic text (2016) -
Animals suffering from diphtheria could be saved by injecting them with serum from others that had survived.
Academic text (2010) -
The doctor warned that diphtheria is a serious illness that can cause breathing difficulties.
Surface Forms
Morphology
diphtheria = diphther (opaque) = diphther + ia
The element 'diphther-' is a non‑productive combining form not found as a standalone English word, so the disease name is not transparently derivable by learners.
Etymology
Diphtheria comes from the Greek word diphthera, which means 'leather'. Doctors called it this because the disease makes a thick, leather-like film in the throat that can block breathing, so diphtheria is a serious, very contagious illness.