I.
noun
ADJECTIVE
▪ major
▪ global , national , worldwide
▪ growing
▪ deadly , devastating
▪ cholera , flu , foot-and-mouth , typhoid , etc.
▪ crack , heroin , etc.
▪ silent
VERB + EPIDEMIC
▪ become
▪ combat , fight
▪ cause
EPIDEMIC + VERB
▪ break out , occur , strike (sth)
▪
A typhus ~ struck in the winter of 1919–20.
▪ spread , sweep (sth)
▪
the flu ~ sweeping the country
PREPOSITION
▪ during an/the ~ , in an/the ~
▪
Over fifty people died during the flu ~ last winter.
▪ ~ of
▪
an ~ of cholera
PHRASES
▪ reach ~ proportions
▪
Marriage breakdown in the West has reached ~ proportions.
II.
adj.
Epidemic is used with these nouns: ↑ proportion