diphtheria

English

Etymology

From French diphthérie, coined 1857 by Pierre Bretonneau; from Ancient Greek διφθέρα (diphthéra, “prepared hide, leather”), for the tough membrane that forms in the throat. Bretonneau earlier used diphthérite, from which diphtheritis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪfˈθɪəɹɪə/, /dɪpˈθɪəɹɪə/
• IPA^(key): /dɪfˈθɪɹi.ə/, /dɪpˈθɪɹi.ə/
• Rhymes: -ɪəɹiə
• Rhymes: -ɪɹiə

Noun

diphtheria (countable and uncountable, plural diphtherias)

1. (pathology) A highly infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract characterised by a sore throat, fever, and difficulty breathing, its symptoms being due to a potent toxin excreted by the infecting agent .

Synonyms

(repiratory tract infection):

• Boulogne sore throat (obsolete)
• strangling angel / strangling angel of children (informal, archaic)
• diphtheritis

Derived terms

• diphtheriae
• diphtherial
• diphtheric
• diphtheritic
• diphtheritis
• DPT
• DPPT

Related terms

• Corynebacterium diphtheriae
• C. diphtheriae

Translations

infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract

• Afrikaans: witseerkeel
• Arabic: خُنَاق m (ḵunāq)
• Armenian: դիֆթերիա (diftʻeria)
• Azerbaijani: difteriya
• Burmese: ဆုံဆို့နာ (my) (hcumhcui.na)
• Catalan: diftèria (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 白喉 (zh) (báihóu), 白喉病 (zh) (báihóubìng)

• Czech: záškrt m
• Danish: difteri c, difteritis c
• Esperanto: difterio
• Estonian: difteeria
• Faroese: difteritis n
• Finnish: kurkkumätä (fi)
• French: diphthérie (fr) f
• Galician: difteria f
• Georgian: დიფთერია (dipteria)
• German: Diphtherie (de) f
• Greek: διφθερίτις (el) f (diftherítis)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: torokgyík (hu), diftéria (hu)
• Icelandic: barnaveiki f
• Irish: diftéire
• Italian: difterite (it) f
• Japanese: ジフテリア (jifuteria)
• Kazakh: дифтерия (difteriä)
• Latvian: difterija f
• Lithuanian: difterija f
• Persian: دیفتری (fa) (difteri)
• Portuguese: difteria (pt) f
• Romanian: difterie (ro) f
• Russian: дифтери́я (ru) f (difteríja)
• Serbo-Croatian: gušobolja (sh) f
• Slovak: záškrt m
• Spanish: difteria f
• Swedish: difteri (sv) c
• Thai: คอตีบ (kɔɔ-dtìip)
• Turkish: difteri (tr)
• Uzbek: difteriya (uz)
• Vietnamese: bạch hầu

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Interlingua

Noun

diphtheria (uncountable)

1. diphtheria