Meaning & use
plague
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A serious infectious disease that spreads quickly and kills many people, especially the bacterial illness that devastated medieval Europe.
Grammar: Uncountable for the disease in general (died of plague); countable when naming one outbreak (a plague struck the city).
Patterns
- a plague of something
- die of plague
Records show that plague reached the port town in the summer of 1348.
The village was emptied by a plague that lasted two winters.
Doctors feared that a new plague could cross the border within days.
nouncountablefigurative
A sudden, harmful appearance of huge numbers of insects or animals, or of anything unwelcome that seems impossible to stop.
Grammar: Usually followed by of: a plague of locusts.
Patterns
- a plague of something
A plague of locusts stripped the fields bare in a single afternoon.
Residents complained about a plague of mosquitoes after the floods.
Spam has become a plague of modern email.
verbtransitive
To trouble or torment someone or something again and again over a long period.
Grammar: Takes an object and is often passive: the team was plagued by injuries.
Patterns
- be plagued by something
- plague someone with something
Engine trouble plagued the expedition from the first day.
She was plagued by doubts all through the exam week.
Delays continue to plague the new rail line.
Word forms
| plural | plagues |
|---|---|
| third person singular | plagues |
| past tense | plagued |
| past participle | plagued |
| -ing form | plaguing |
Common combinations
- bubonic plague
- Bubonic plague is now treatable with antibiotics.
- a plague of locusts
- Farmers prayed that no plague of locusts would arrive this year.
- be plagued by problems
- The festival was plagued by problems with the sound system.
- plague victims
- Mass graves held thousands of plague victims.
- avoid like the plague
- After the argument he avoided her like the plague.
- plague someone with questions
- The children plagued their teacher with questions about the trip.
Synonyms and how they differ
- epidemic
- An epidemic is any disease outbreak spreading fast through a community, while plague names a particular deadly illness or an overwhelming infestation.
- scourge
- Scourge is more literary and stresses a lasting source of suffering, whereas plague also suggests sheer numbers.
- torment
- As a verb, torment implies deliberate or intense cruelty, while plague only needs persistent annoyance.
- afflict
- Afflict is more formal and usually describes illness or hardship striking someone, where plague stresses repetition.
Word family
- plagued adjective
- repeatedly troubled by something
- plaguey adjective
- old-fashioned word meaning annoying
- pestilence noun
- a deadly epidemic disease, in literary use
Commonly confused: plague or plaque?
plague vs plaque
Plaque (/plæk/ or /plɑːk/) is a commemorative tablet or the film that forms on teeth; it is not a disease or a pest.
Practice
Complaints about the delays ____ the airline throughout the whole summer.
Choose one answer.
Plagued means troubled again and again. Plaqued is not a real verb here, and pleased and played do not fit the meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “plague”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.