n.
Pronunciation: ' an- ˌ thraks
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English antrax carbuncle, from Latin anthrax, from Greek, coal, carbuncle
Date: 1861
: an infectious disease of warm-blooded animals (as cattle and sheep) caused by a spore-forming bacterium ( Bacillus anthracis ), transmissible to humans especially by the handling of infected products (as wool), and characterized by cutaneous ulcerating nodules or by often fatal lesions in the lungs also : the bacterium causing anthrax