relapsing fever
noun
Simple meaning
An infection caused by certain bacteria of the genus Borrelia, transmitted by lice and ticks.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rihlapsihngfeeverSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɹɪˈlæpsɪŋˈfivɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
pathology
An infection caused by certain bacteria of the genus Borrelia, transmitted by lice and ticks.
Marked by recurring high fever and transmitted by the bite of infected lice or ticks; characterized by episodes of high fever and chills and headache and muscle pain and nausea that recur every week or ten days for several months
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: (pathology) An infection caused by certain bacteria of the genus Borrelia, transmitted by lice and ticks.
Used this way, relapsing fever is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.