smallpox

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever and weakness and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs that slough off leaving scars

From small + pox, in contrast to greatpox (“syphilis”).

"He thinks it's the smallpox. — Further Chronicles of Avonlea, L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery
"I never had the smallpox. — Only an Irish Boy; Or, Andy Burke's Fortunes, Horatio, Jr. Alger
He died of the smallpox. — Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts, Rosalind Northcote

variola, variola major

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