HOW TO PRONOUNCE
leprosy
/ˈlɛpɹəsi/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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What does leprosy mean?
noun
- An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, gradually producing nerve damage and patches of skin necrosis and historically handled by permanently quarantining its sufferers.
- (figuratively) Anything considered similarly permanent, harmful, and communicable, particularly when such a thing should be handled by avoidance or isolation of its victims.
- Ellipsis of murine leprosy or feline leprosy (“diseases caused in rodents and cats by Mycobacterium lepraemurium”).
More meanings (3)
noun
- (dated) Similar contagious skin diseases causing light patches of scaly skin, particularly psoriasis, syphilis, vitiligo, scabies, and (biblical) the various diseases considered "tzaraath" in the Old Testament.
- (obsolete) Synonym of mange and glanders in horses.
- (obsolete, rare) Synonym of leprosarium: a place for the housing of lepers in isolation from the rest of society.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈlɛpɹəsi/
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
Pliny tells us that the Egyptians warmed with human blood the seats in their baths as a remedy against the dreaded leprosy.
Barbarism sprang up again, in a hideous form, from this mass of corruption, and spread like a devouring leprosy over the depopulated provinces.
More book examples (3)
The leprosy does not come of sins which they committed, but of sins committed by their ancestors, who escaped the curse of leprosy!
That stone is no more exempt than others from the leprosy of time, of dampness, of the lichens and from the defilement of the birds.
These people were formerly supposed to have been the descendants of lepers, or to have been the victims of leprosy themselves.