rat typhus
- noun
- /ræt ˈtaɪfəs/
- Specialized
:
tifus murino
- After being bitten by a flea, she developed symptoms consistent with rat typhus.
Examples
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Effective pest control can significantly reduce the risk of rat typhus in densely populated areas.
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The outbreak of rat typhus in the city led to widespread health warnings.
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The outbreak of rat typhus in the city alarmed health officials.
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Many people suffered from rat typhus during the epidemic.
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Effective pest control can significantly reduce the risk of rat typhus in densely populated areas.
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After being bitten by a flea, she developed symptoms consistent with rat typhus.
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The outbreak of rat typhus in the city led to widespread health warnings.
Synonyms
12
8.6
A serious disease spread by lice or fleas that causes high fever, headache, and a skin rash
A disease caused by bacteria spread by flea bites that causes fever and rash
An illness with fever and rash spread by fleas from rats or mice
An illness spread by infected fleas that causes fever, chills, muscle aches, and a rash
A serious infection spread by lice or fleas that causes high fever, headache, and a skin rash
An illness people get when ticks, mites, or lice spread tiny germs
An illness caused by bacteria spread by bites from ticks, mites, or lice
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound simply names a form of typhus associated with rats: a learner who knows 'rat' (a rodent) and 'typhus' (a disease transmitted by lice/fleas) can infer it is typhus linked to rats or their fleas. This host-based disease-naming pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows straightforward compositional semantics, making the term predictable for B1 learners.
Etymology
Rat typhus comes from rats and the fleas that live on them, because those fleas can bite people and spread the germs that cause illness. So the words rat and typhus point to this 'disease' spread by flea bites.