outbreak
An eruption; the sudden appearance of a rash, disease, etc.
Example
“Any epidemic outbreak causes understandable panic.”
Other meanings
A sudden increase.
“There has been an outbreak of vandalism at the school.”
An outburst or sudden eruption, especially of violence and mischief.
“There has been an outbreak of broken windows in the street.”
Synonyms
- eruption
Related words
- interoutbreak
- intraoutbreak
- postoutbreak
- preoutbreak
- sun outage
Word history
From Old English "ūtābrecan" (to break out).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “outbreak” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.