English Explanatory Dictionary

monkeypox

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A disease of the skin of rodents and primates, including humans, caused by virus of species Orthopoxvirus monkeypox.

Word forms

monkeypox monkey-pox monkey pox

Etymology

From monkey + pox; originally so named based on cases in monkeys, although the name was a misnomer because monkeys are less of a reservoir for the disease than other animals are. More at Wikipedia (mpox § Nomenclature).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on M Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary