DISEASE

[noun] - (an) illness of people, animals, plants, etc., caused by infection or a failure of health rather than by an accidenta contagious/infectious disease [C]a communicable disease [C]a common/rare/incurable/fatal disease [C]a childhood disease [C]They reported a sudden outbreak of the disease in the south of the country. [C]The first symptom of the disease is a very high temperature. [C]She has caught/contracted (= began to have) a lung disease/disease of the lungs. [C]Starvation and disease have killed thousands of refugees. [U]He's got Legionnaire's Disease. [U]Hundreds of thousands of trees died from Dutch Elm Disease. [U](figurative) The real disease affecting the country is inflation. [U]