Standard Lemma guide

typhus

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.

  • /ˈtaɪfəs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -aɪfəs
  • CMU ARPABET: T AY1 F AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of several similar diseases, characterised by high recurrent fever, caused by Rickettsia bacteria. Not to be confused with typhoid fever.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

rickettsial disease transmitted by body lice and characterized by skin rash and high fever

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: typhus fever

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: rickettsial disease, rickettsiosis

Narrower terms: murine typhus, rat typhus, urban typhus, endemic typhus

History

Etymology

From New Latin typhus, from Ancient Greek τῦφος (tûphos, “fever, stupor”), from τύφω (túphō, “to smoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *dhewbh-, extended form of *dhew- (“scatter like dust”).

Across languages

Translations

43 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: تِيفُوس (tīfūs) — disease
  • Arabic: تِيفُوس (tifus) — disease
  • Asturian: tifus — disease
  • Azerbaijani: yatalaq — disease
  • Azerbaijani: tif — disease
  • Catalan: tifus — disease
  • Chinese Mandarin: 斑疹傷寒 /斑疹伤寒 (bānzhěn shānghán) — disease
  • Czech: tyfus — disease
  • Danish: tyfus — disease
  • Dutch: tyfus — disease
  • Esperanto: tifo — disease
  • Faroese: týfus — disease
  • Finnish: pilkkukuume — disease
  • French: typhus — disease
  • Galician: tifo — disease
  • German: Fleckfieber — disease
  • German: Flecktyphus — disease
  • Greek: τύφος (týfos) — disease
  • Hungarian: tífusz — disease
  • Hungarian: kiütéses tífusz — disease
  • Hungarian: flekktífusz — disease
  • Icelandic: flekkusótt — disease
  • Indonesian: tifus — disease
  • Italian: tifo — disease
  • Japanese: チフス (chifusu) — disease
  • Kazakh: сүзек (süzek) — disease
  • Korean: 티푸스 (tipuseu) — disease
  • Malay: tifus — disease
  • Māori: karawaka — disease
  • Norwegian Bokmål: tyfus — disease
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: tyfus — disease
  • Plautdietsch: Tiefuss — disease
  • Polish: tyfus — disease
  • Portuguese: tifo — disease
  • Romanian: tifos — disease
  • Russian: тиф (tif) — disease
  • Russian: сыпно́й тиф (sypnój tif) — disease
  • Scottish Gaelic: am fiabhras-ballach — disease
  • Slovak: týfus — disease
  • Southern Altai: изӱ оору (izü ooru) — disease
  • Spanish: tifus — disease
  • Swedish: tyfus — disease
  • Turkish: tifüs — disease