malaria

nounattested in dialogue

//məˈlɛəɹi.ə//

A disease spread by mosquito, in which a protozoan, Plasmodium, multiplies in blood every few days.

noun

1
A disease spread by mosquito, in which a protozoan, Plasmodium, multiplies in blood every few days.
2
archaicSupposed poisonous air arising from marshy districts, once thought to cause fever.
The doctor had his hands full, as the air was so impregnated with malaria that men who had only landed some twenty-four hours were laid low with this extraordinarily violent type of fever.

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian malaria, formed from mal- (“bad”) and aria (“air”). Introduced into English by the Scottish geologist John MacCulloch (1773–1835). Displaced native Old English unlyft (literally “bad air”).

Forms

plural: malarias

mal · illness, affliction.Mal · A short form of given names such as Mallory, Malcolm etc.mala · A single lobe of an insect's maxilla.

malaria · A disease spread by mosquito, in which a protozoan, Plasmodium, multiplies in blood every few days.

Malaysia · A country in Southeast Asia. Capital: Kuala Lumpur.Malcolm · A male given name from Scottish Gaelic or Goidelic, variant…male · Belonging to the sex which typically produces sperm, or to…

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.