Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Whooping-cough.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) The whooping cough.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology whooping cough

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a disease of the respiratory mucous membrane

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin : Latin per-, thorough; see per– + Latin tussis, cough.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Modern Latin, from per- + tussis ‘cough’.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word pertussis.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • It's a great word because of the plosive "t".

    I like onomatopoeia.

    February 13, 2007

  • humm.. but is it really? does it really sound like a cough? hmm

    February 24, 2007

  • I think it fits the definition; The word has the qualities of a cough. No different than the word buzz.

    More to the point, it's what you would say if you coughed in the middle of saying "per-ussis".

    March 1, 2007

  • perkussis

    March 29, 2007