pyrexia

English

Etymology

From post-classical Latin pyrexia, from Ancient Greek πυρεξία (purexía, “feverishness”), from πυρετός (puretós, “fever”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pʌɪˈrɛk.si.ə/, /pɪˈrɛk.si.ə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /paɪˈrɛk.si.ə/
• Hyphenation: py‧rex‧i‧a

Noun

pyrexia (countable and uncountable, plural pyrexias or pyrexiae)

1. (medicine) Fever. [from 18th c.]
   • 1997, Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Folio Society, published 2016, page 253:

     The least defined pyrexiae were the continued fevers, divided mainly into typhus, enteric (typhoid) and relapsing.

2. (medicine) Trench fever.

Derived terms

• pyrexic, pyrexial

Related terms

• hyperpyrexia
• hypopyrexia