Standard Lemma guide

rabies

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.

  • /ˈɹeɪ.biːz/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -eɪbiːz
  • CMU ARPABET: R EY1 B IY0 Z Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

An infectious disease caused by species of Lyssavirus that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals and people, characterised by abnormal behaviour such as biting, excitement, aggressiveness, and dementia, followed by paralysis and death.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Arctic dog disease, hydrophobia, lyssa

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

an acute viral disease of the nervous system of warm-blooded animals (usually transmitted by the bite of a rabid animal); rabies is fatal if the virus reaches the brain

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: hydrophobia, lyssa, madness

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: zoonosis, zoonotic disease

History

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin rabiēs (“rage, madness, fury”). Doublet of rage.

Across languages

Translations

86 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: hondsdolheid — viral disease
  • Arabic: كَلَب (kalab) — viral disease
  • Arabic: دَاء اَلْكَلَب (dāʔ al-kalab) — viral disease
  • Arabic: سعر (sáʕar) — viral disease
  • Arabic: سعر (saʕr) — viral disease
  • Armenian: կատաղություն (kataġutʻyun) — viral disease
  • Azerbaijani: quduzluq — viral disease
  • Belarusian: шаленства (šaljenstva) — viral disease
  • Belarusian: шал (šal) — viral disease
  • Bengali: জলাতঙ্ক (jolatoṅko) — viral disease
  • Bulgarian: бяс (bjas) — viral disease
  • Burmese: ခွေးရူးပြန်ရောဂါ (hkwe:ru:pranrau:ga) — viral disease
  • Catalan: ràbia — viral disease
  • Cebuano: rabis — viral disease
  • Chinese Mandarin: 狂犬病 (kuángquǎnbìng) — viral disease
  • Czech: vzteklina — viral disease
  • Danish: hundegalskab — viral disease
  • Danish: rabies — viral disease
  • Dutch: hondsdolheid — viral disease
  • Dutch: rabiës — viral disease
  • Estonian: marutaud — viral disease
  • Finnish: vesikauhu — viral disease
  • Finnish: raivotauti — viral disease
  • French: rage — viral disease
  • Galician: rabia — viral disease
  • Georgian: ცოფი (copi) — viral disease
  • German: Tollwut — viral disease
  • Greek: λύσσα (lýssa) — viral disease
  • Hebrew: כַּלֶּבֶת (kallevet) — viral disease
  • Hindi: हलकाव (halkāv) — viral disease
  • Hungarian: veszettség — viral disease
  • Ido: ranio — viral disease
  • Indonesian: rabies — viral disease
  • Indonesian: anjing gila — viral disease
  • Irish: confadh — viral disease
  • Italian: rabbia — viral disease
  • Japanese: 狂犬病 (kyōkenbyō) — viral disease
  • Khmer: ឆ្កែឆ្កួត (chkae chkuət) — viral disease
  • Korean: 광견병 (gwanggyeonbyeong) — viral disease
  • Northern Kurdish: harî — viral disease
  • Lao: ວໍ້ (wǭ) — viral disease
  • Lithuanian: pasiutligė — viral disease
  • Macedonian: бе́снило (bésnilo) — viral disease
  • Malay: penyakit anjing gila — viral disease
  • Malay: gila anjing — viral disease
  • Malay: rabies — viral disease
  • Marathi: अलर्क (alarka) — viral disease
  • Mongolian: галзуу өвчин (galzuu övčin) — viral disease
  • Mongolian: ᠭᠠᠯᠵᠠᠭᠤ ᠡᠪᠡᠳᠴᠢᠨ (ɣalǰaɣu ebedčin) — viral disease
  • Norman: rage — viral disease
  • Norwegian: hundegalskap — viral disease
  • Norwegian: rabies — viral disease
  • Persian: هاری — viral disease
  • Polish: wścieklizna — viral disease
  • Portuguese: raiva — viral disease
  • Punjabi: ہلک (hlk) — viral disease
  • Punjabi: ਹਲਕ (halak) — viral disease
  • Romanian: turbare — viral disease
  • Romanian: rabie — viral disease
  • Russian: бе́шенство (béšenstvo) — viral disease
  • Serbo-Croatian: бѐснило — viral disease
  • Serbo-Croatian: бесноћа — viral disease
  • Serbo-Croatian: bèsnilo — viral disease
  • Serbo-Croatian: besnoća — viral disease
  • Sicilian: raggia — viral disease
  • Sinhalese: පිස්සුකම (pissukama) — viral disease
  • Sinhalese: පිස්සුව (pissuwa) — viral disease
  • Slovak: besnota — viral disease
  • Slovene: steklina — viral disease
  • Spanish: rabia — viral disease
  • Swedish: rabies — viral disease
  • Tagalog: rabis — viral disease
  • Tajik: калоб (kalob) — viral disease
  • Tamil: நாய்க்கடிசன்னி (nāykkaṭicaṉṉi) — viral disease
  • Thai: พิษสุนัขบ้า (pít-sù-nák-bâa) — viral disease
  • Turkish: kuduz — viral disease
  • Ottoman Turkish: قودوز — viral disease
  • Ukrainian: сказ (skaz) — viral disease
  • Urdu: ہلکاؤ — viral disease
  • Vietnamese: dại — viral disease
  • Vietnamese: bệnh dại — viral disease
  • Volapük: rabiät — viral disease
  • Walloon: må d' araedje — viral disease
  • Walloon: araedje — viral disease
  • Walloon: raedje — viral disease
  • Yiddish: וואַסערשרעק (vasershrek) — viral disease