outbreak

English

Etymology

From Middle English outbreken, oute-breken, from Old English ūtābrecan (“to break out”), equivalent to out- +‎ break. Cognate with Saterland Frisian uutbreeke (“to break out, burst out”), West Frisian útbrekke (“to break out”), Dutch uitbreken (“to break out, burst out”), German ausbrechen (“to break out, erupt”).

The noun is cognate with Saterland Frisian Uutbreek (“outbreak”), West Frisian útbrek (“outbreak”), Dutch uitbraak (“outbreak”), and German Ausbruch (“outbreak”), and is comparable to Danish udbrud (“outbreak”), Faroese and Icelandic útbrot (“rash”), Norwegian utbrudd (“outbreak”), and Swedish utbrott (“outbreak”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈaʊtbɹeɪk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: out‧break

Noun

outbreak (plural outbreaks)

1. An eruption; the sudden appearance of a rash, disease, etc.

   Any epidemic outbreak causes understandable panic.

   • 2026 January 9, “US builds case to retain measles elimination status as infections mount”, in CNN‎^[1], sourced from Reuters, archived from the original on 14 February 2026:

     In a December 5 post on X, CDC Acting Director Jim O’Neill said there was no epidemiological evidence linking the Texas outbreak and the ongoing cases in South Carolina.
     A U.S. Health and Human Services spokesman confirmed that the CDC has found no epidemiological evidence linking ongoing outbreaks to Texas, but said many recent U.S. cases share the same genotype and have no known source of infection, “which could indicate ongoing domestic transmission.”

2. A sudden increase.

   There has been an outbreak of vandalism at the school.

   • 2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR‎^[2], archived from the original on 2 December 2025:

     One such investigation described how kindness can be contagious. It was sparked by reports of an outbreak of kindness on a cold December morning in 2012.

3. (figurative) An outburst or sudden eruption, especially of violence and mischief.

   There has been an outbreak of broken windows in the street.

4. Synonym of breakout (“escape from prison”).

Synonyms

• (figurative outburst): outburst, tumult

Antonyms

• inbreak

Derived terms

• interoutbreak
• intraoutbreak
• postoutbreak
• preoutbreak
• sun outage

Translations

an eruption, sudden appearance

• Arabic: تَفَشٍّ m (tafaššin)
• Bulgarian: изригване n (izrigvane)
• Catalan: brot (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 爆發 / 爆发 (zh) (bàofā)

• Danish: udbrud n
• Dutch: uitbarsting (nl), uitbraak (nl) n
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: purkaus (fi), puhkeaminen (fi)
• French: éruption (fr) f, déclenchement (fr), apparition (fr)
• German: Ausbruch (de) m, Auftreten (de) n, Entfesselung f
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: ráig f
• Italian: scoppio (it) m, insorgenza (it) f,
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Māori: kautorohītanga, kaitorohītanga
• Persian: شیوع (fa) (šoyu')
• Polish: wybuch (pl) m
• Portuguese: surto (pt) m
• Romanian: izbucnire (ro) f
• Russian: вспы́шка (ru) f (vspýška), взрыв (ru) m (vzryv)
• Spanish: brote (es) m, irrupción (es) f, surgimiento m
• Welsh: cychwyn (cy) m, cychwyniad m, tarddiant m

a sudden increase

• Bulgarian: изблик (bg) m (izblik)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 激增 (zh) (jīzēng)

• Danish: bølge (da) c
• Dutch: uitbarsting (nl), explosie (nl)
• Finnish: aalto (fi)
• French: explosion (fr)
• German: sprunghafter Anstieg, plötzliche Zunahme, Massenvermehrung f (biol.), Schwemme (de) f
• Italian: diffusione (it) f
• Persian: شیوع (fa) (šoyu')
• Polish: wybuch (pl) m
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can

(fig.) an outburst or sudden eruption, especially violent

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: въстание (bg) n (vǎstanie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 一系列 (zh) (yīxìliè), 突發事端 / 突发事端 (tūfā shìduān)

• Dutch: uitbarsting (nl), uitbreken (nl) n
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: purkaus (fi), puhkeaminen (fi)
• French: éruption (fr), explosion (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Ausbruch (de) m, plötzliches Auftreten, Lawine (de) f, Flut (de) f
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: ráig f
• Italian: esplosione (it) f, eruzione (it) f
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: wybuch (pl) m
• Romanian: izbucnire (ro) f
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: eclosión (es) f, surgimiento m
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: ffrwydrad (cy) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} éruption (fr) f

Verb

outbreak (third-person singular simple present outbreaks, present participle outbreaking, simple past outbroke, past participle outbroken)

1. (intransitive) To burst out or break forth.

See also

• breakout

Anagrams

• break out, breakout, kabouter, outbrake