as in plague
a widespread disease resulting in a high rate of death
the fear that terrorists could unleash a pestilence that would wreak unspeakable havoc
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Recent Examples of pestilence
Readers also turned to tales of pestilence past: Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, Gabriel García Márquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera.
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Judy Berman, TIME, 25 July 2024
With fire and broadsword came pestilence, in the form of a sickness called Morrisania fever, which carried off many Refugees.
—Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, 15 July 2024
In the past, East Asia’s (and every region’s) prolonged contractions were a consequence of dreadful calamity—such as war, famine, pestilence, or upheaval.
—Nicholas Eberstadt, Foreign Affairs, 8 May 2024
Luke called the vultures back and reshot the scene with the jetsam of pestilence.
—Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2023
See all Example Sentences for pestilence 
Judy Berman, TIME, 25 July 2024
With fire and broadsword came pestilence, in the form of a sickness called Morrisania fever, which carried off many Refugees.
—Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, 15 July 2024
In the past, East Asia’s (and every region’s) prolonged contractions were a consequence of dreadful calamity—such as war, famine, pestilence, or upheaval.
—Nicholas Eberstadt, Foreign Affairs, 8 May 2024
Luke called the vultures back and reshot the scene with the jetsam of pestilence.
—Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2023
See all Example Sentences for pestilence
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Cite this Entry
“Pestilence.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pestilence. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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