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leprosy.

An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, gradually producing nerve damage and patches of skin necrosis and historically handled by permanently quarantining its sufferers.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈlɛpɹəsi/
  1. An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, gradually producing nerve damage and patches of skin necrosis and historically handled by permanently quarantining its sufferers.

    uncountable · usually
  2. Similar contagious skin diseases causing light patches of scaly skin, particularly psoriasis, syphilis, vitiligo, scabies, and (biblical) the various diseases considered "tzaraath" in the Old Testament.

    dated · proscribed · uncountable · usually
  3. Anything considered similarly permanent, harmful, and communicable, particularly when such a thing should be handled by avoidance or isolation of its victims.

    figuratively · uncountable · usually
    Sin is a spiritual leprosy.
  4. A contagious disease causing similar effects in animals, particularly Ellipsis of murine leprosy or feline leprosy (“diseases caused in rodents and cats by Mycobacterium lepraemurium”).

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · uncountable · usually
  5. A contagious disease causing similar effects in animals, particularly Synonym of mange and glanders in horses.

    obsolete · uncountable · usually
  6. Synonym of leprosarium: a place for the housing of lepers in isolation from the rest of society.

    obsolete · rare · uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

From Norman leprosie, from Middle French leprosie (“leprosy & similar skin diseases”), probably from leprous (“leprous”) + -ie (“-y”) but possibly from Medieval Latin leprōsia (leprōsus + -ia) although this only historically attested in reference to leprosariums. The shift of sense from psoriasis to Hansen's disease occurred in large part from the use of λέπρα (lépra) to translate Hebrew צרעת (“tzaraath”) in the Septuagint and its subsequent use in the New Testament and Late Latin.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.