different between pestilent vs pestilence

English

Etymology

Middle English, from Latin pestilens, from Latin pestis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?st?l?nt/, /?p?st?l?nt/, /?p?stl?nt/

Adjective

pestilent (comparative more pestilent, superlative most pestilent)

1. Highly injurious or destructive to life: deadly.
2. (informal) Annoying.
3. (archaic) Harmful to morals or public order.

Synonyms

• (harboring disease, annoying): pestiferous

Related terms

• pest
• pestiferous
• pestilential

Romanian

Etymology

From French pestilent

Adjective

pestilent m or n (feminine singular pestilent?, masculine plural pestilen?i, feminine and neuter plural pestilente)

1. pestilent

Declension

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pestilentia (“plague”), from pestilens (“infected, unwholesome, noxious”); see pestilent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?st?l?n(t)s/, /?p?st?l?n(t)s/, /?p?stl?n(t)s/

Noun

pestilence (countable and uncountable, plural pestilences)

1. Any epidemic disease that is highly contagious, infectious, virulent and devastating.
   • 1826, Mary Shelley, The Last Man, part 2, chapter 2

     "Take it, Christian dogs? take the palaces, the gardens, the mosques, the abode of our fathers - take plague with them; pestilence is the enemy we fly; if she be your friend, hug her to your bosoms. The curse of Allah is on Stamboul, share ye her fate?"

   • 1949 - Bruce Kiskaddon, George R. Stewart, Earth Abides

     The snowshoe-rabbits build up through the years until they reach a climax when they seem to be everywhere; then with dramatic suddenness their pestilence falls upon them.

2. (archaic) Anything harmful to morals or public order.

Related terms

• pest
• pesticide
• pestilent

Translations

Further reading

• pestilence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• pestilence in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Old French pestilence, borrowed from Latin pestilentia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?s.ti.l??s/

Noun

pestilence f (plural pestilences)

1. (archaic or literary) pest epidemic; pestilence
2. extremely foul smell

   Synonyms: infection, puanteur

Derived terms

• pestilentiel

References

• “pestilence” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Noun

pestilence f (oblique plural pestilences, nominative singular pestilence, nominative plural pestilences)

1. pestilence (epidemic disease)