Standard Lemma guide

meningitis

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK, US: /ˌmɛnɪnˈdʒaɪtɪs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: M EH2 N AH0 N JH AY1 T AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Inflammation of the meninges, characterized by headache, neck stiffness and photophobia and also fever, chills, vomiting and myalgia.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

infectious disease characterized by inflammation of the meninges (the tissues that surround the brain or spinal cord) usually caused by a bacterial infection; symptoms include headache and stiff neck and fever and nausea

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: infectious disease

Narrower terms: choriomeningitis, cerebrospinal meningitis, epidemic meningitis, brain fever, cerebrospinal fever, meningoencephalitis, cerebromeningitis, encephalomeningitis, leptomeningitis

History

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μῆνῐγξ (mênĭnx) + -itis, equivalent to meninge + -itis.

Across languages

Translations

55 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: اِلْتِهَاب سَحَايَا (iltihāb saḥāyā) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Armenian: մենինգիտ (meningit) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Catalan: meningitis — inflammation of the meninges
  • Chinese Mandarin: 腦膜炎 /脑膜炎 (nǎomóyán) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Czech: meningitida — inflammation of the meninges
  • Czech: zánět mozkových blan — inflammation of the meninges
  • Danish: hjernehindebetændelse — inflammation of the meninges
  • Danish: meningitis — inflammation of the meninges
  • Dutch: hersenvliesontsteking — inflammation of the meninges
  • Dutch: meningitis — inflammation of the meninges
  • Dutch: nekkramp — inflammation of the meninges
  • Esperanto: meningito — inflammation of the meninges
  • Finnish: aivokalvontulehdus — inflammation of the meninges
  • Finnish: meningiitti — inflammation of the meninges
  • French: méningite — inflammation of the meninges
  • Galician: meninxite — inflammation of the meninges
  • German: Hirnhautentzündung — inflammation of the meninges
  • German: Meningitis — inflammation of the meninges
  • Greek: μηνιγγίτιδα (miningítida) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Hungarian: agyhártyagyulladás — inflammation of the meninges
  • Icelandic: heilahimnubólga — inflammation of the meninges
  • Icelandic: mengisbólga — inflammation of the meninges
  • Italian: meningite — inflammation of the meninges
  • Japanese: 髄膜炎 (zuimakuen) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Kazakh: миқұрт (miqūrt) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Korean: 뇌수막염 (noesumagyeom) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Latvian: meningīts — inflammation of the meninges
  • Lithuanian: meningitas — inflammation of the meninges
  • Macedonian: менингитис (meningitis) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Malayalam: മെനിഞ്ചൈറ്റിസ് (meniñcaiṟṟisŭ) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Māori: kiriuhi uakakā — inflammation of the meninges
  • Māori: mate kiriuhi uakakā — inflammation of the meninges
  • Marathi: मेंदुज्वर (mendujvar) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Marathi: मस्तिष्कावरणशोथ (mastiṣkāvraṇśoth) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hjernehinnebetennelse — inflammation of the meninges
  • Norwegian Bokmål: meningitt — inflammation of the meninges
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: hjernehinnebetennelse — inflammation of the meninges
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: meningitt — inflammation of the meninges
  • Persian: مننژیت (menanžit) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Polish: zapalenie opon mózgowych — inflammation of the meninges
  • Portuguese: meningite — inflammation of the meninges
  • Romanian: meningită — inflammation of the meninges
  • Russian: менинги́т (meningít) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Scottish Gaelic: am fiabhras-eanchainne — inflammation of the meninges
  • Spanish: meningitis — inflammation of the meninges
  • Swahili: homa ya uti wa mgongo — inflammation of the meninges
  • Swedish: hjärnhinneinflammation — inflammation of the meninges
  • Swedish: meningit — inflammation of the meninges
  • Tagalog: meninghitis — inflammation of the meninges
  • Thai: เยื่อหุ้มสมองอักเสบ (yʉ̂ʉa-hûm-sà-mɔ̌ɔng-àk-sèep) — inflammation of the meninges
  • Turkish: menenjit — inflammation of the meninges
  • Vietnamese: viêm màng não — inflammation of the meninges
  • Volapük: menenaflamat — inflammation of the meninges
  • Yoruba: yínrùnyínrùn — inflammation of the meninges
  • Yoruba: lọ́rùnlọ́rùn — inflammation of the meninges
Real reading context

meningitis in complete knowledge articles