Standard Lemma guide

pertussis

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /pəˈtʌsɪs/
  • General-American: /pɚˈtʌsɪs/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P ER0 T AH1 S IH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Whooping cough.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences

Examples

  • 2015, Dr. Stephen Berger, Pertussis: Global Status, GIDEON Informatics, Inc., E-book, page 343, During 1993 to 2004, the hospitalization rate [in the US] for pertussis among infants ages <= 2 months was 239 per 100,000 live births.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a disease of the respiratory mucous membrane

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: whooping cough

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: infectious disease, respiratory disease, respiratory illness, respiratory disorder

History

Etymology

From New Latin, from Latin per- (“thorough”) + tussis (“cough”).