diseases

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of disease.

   Several tropical diseases are carried by mosquitoes and biting flies.

   The clinic specializes in chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma.

   Note

   A plural that exists only for the countable side of the noun. When disease names a separate condition, it multiplies: tropical diseases, chronic diseases. When it means illness in general, as in disease spreads quickly, there is nothing to count and the singular stays. The figurative use counts too, so a writer can speak of the diseases of a society or of its attitudes.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of disease.

   Note

   The verb behind this form is transitive. Something diseases a crop, a field or a body, and the thing harmed follows directly. Its living meaning is to infect. An older sense, to annoy or unsettle, is obsolete, so a modern reader will hear infection. The spelling is shared with the plural noun, and an object after the word marks the verb.

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