Pestilential

Definition: Pestilential

Pestilential

Adjective

1. Likely to spread and cause an epidemic disease; "a pestilential malignancy in the air"- Jonathan Swift; "plaguelike diseases"; "plaguey fevers".

Date "pestilential" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1374. (references)

Etymology: Pestilential \Pes`ti*len"tial\, adjective. [Compare to the French expression pestilentiel.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Pestilential

Synonyms: pestilent (adj), plaguelike (adj), plaguey (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Insalubrity	Adjective: insalubrious; unhealthy, unwholesome; noxious, noisome; morbific, morbiferous; mephitic, septic, azotic, deleterious; pestilent, pestiferous, pestilential; virulent, venomous, envenomed; poisonous, toxic, toxiferous, teratogenic; narcotic.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Pestilential

English words defined with "pestilential": Bezoar ♦ pestilent, Pestilentious, Plagueful, plaguelike, plaguey. (references)

Specialty definitions using "pestilential": Camarina ♦ Freedom. (references)

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Sudan	Historically, the pestilential swamps of the Suud discouraged expansion into the deeper south of the country. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	FREEDOM, n. Exemption from the stress of authority in a beggarly half dozen of restraint's infinite multitude of methods. A political condition that every nation supposes itself to enjoy in virtual monopoly. Liberty. The distinction between freedom and liberty is not accurately known; naturalists have never been able to find a living specimen of either. Freedom, as every schoolboy knows, Once shrieked as Kosciusko fell; On every wind, indeed, that blows I hear her yell. She screams whenever monarchs meet, And parliaments as well, To bind the chains about her feet And toll her knell. And when the sovereign people cast The votes they cannot spell, Upon the pestilential blast Her clamors swell. For all to whom the power's given To sway or to compel, Among themselves apportion Heaven And give her Hell. Blary O'Gary
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Pestilential" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Pestilential" is used about 9 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	9	117,287

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "pestilential"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		vdekjeprurës (baneful, basilisk, deadly, fatal, feral, homicidal, internecine, lethal, lethiferous, mortal, murderous, pestilent, vital), shkatërrimtar (calamitous, crushing, destructive, disastrous, fatal, internecine, killing, pestilent, shattering, slaughterous, suicidal, vandalistic), molepsës (infectious, infective, pestiferous, pestilent, transmissible), bezdisës (pestiferous, pestilent, plaguy, vexing). (various references)

Arabic		‏مزعج (aggravating, annoying, bore, bothering, bothersome, disagreeable, disquieting, disturber, disturbing, galling, grating, harsh, horrid, importunate, importune, intruder, irksome, irritating, mean, mischievous, offensive, pain in the neck, plaguy, provoking, terrible, tiresome, troubled, troublesome, ugly, uncomfortable, unpleasant, upsetting, vexatious, vexing, wicked, worrisome), ‏وبائي (epidemic, epidemical, epizootic), ‏ضار بالأخلاق, ‏شيطان (archenemy, bally, demon, devil, familiar, fiend, lucifer, pixy, prince of darkness, puckish, satan, serpent). (various references)

Bulgarian		чумав, крайно досаден, гибелен (disastrous, fatal, fateful, homicidal, pernicious, pestilent, suicidal, swart), вреден (adverse, bad, deleterious, destructive, detrimental, evil, harmful, ill, inimical, injurious, maleficent, nocuous, noisome, noxious, pernicious, pestiferous, prejudicial), морално застрашаващ (pestiferous), заразен (communicable, contagious, contaminated, infected, infectious, pestiferous, pestilent), зловреден (malefic, malign, malignant, mischievous, pestilent, swart, unwholesome), противен (abhorrent, abominable, adverse, bastard, contrary, cross, disagreeable, foul, fulsome, ghastly, gross, horrid, loud, mucky, nameless, nasty, noisome, objectionable, obnoxious, odious, offensive, opposing, rebarbative, repugnant, repulsive, scarlet, sickening, sickly, sorry, sour, squalid, swinish, ugly, unattractive, unfavorable, unfavourable, ungracious, ungrateful, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, vexatious, vile, villainous), пагубен (baleful, baneful, calamitous, damnific, detrimental, evil, fatal, fateful, homicidal, malign, noxious, pernicious, pestilent, ruinous, subversive). (various references)

Czech		morový (pestiferous, pestilent, plaguy). (various references)

French		pestilentiel (pestiferous, pestilent), sacré (pestilent), nuisible (pestilent). (various references)

German		pestartig (fetid, miasmic, pestilent). (various references)

Greek		μιασματικόσ (miasmal, miasmatic), λοιμώδησ (pestilent). (various references)

Hebrew		של מגפה. (various references)

Hungarian		pestises, kellemetlen (awkward, bad, bothersome, churlish, crabby, cumbersome, cumbrous, disagreeable, disappointing, displeasing, effing, evil, galling, grotty, ill-favored, ill-favoured, inconvenient, irksome, jarring, nasty, noisome, objectionable, obnoxious, pesky, pestilent, plaguy, poisonous, to be in a hole, trying, unaffected, ungracious, unlovely, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, untoward), ártalmas (adverse, deleterious, destructive, deteriorative, harmful, hurtful, injurious, malign, miasmal, miasmatic, mischievous, noisome, noxious, pernicious, pestilent, poisonous). (various references)

Manx		plaihagh, paittagh (plaguy), crampagh (problematic, problematical), breinn (blue, blue as film, foetid, foul, loathsome, malodorus, nasty, offensive, putrid, rancid, rotten, smelly). (various references)

Pig Latin		estilentialpay

Portuguese		pestilento (fumy, pestiferous, pestilent), nocivo (adverse, bad, foul, harmful, harmless, hurtful, injurious, nocuous, noisome, noxious, pestiferous, pestilent, prejudicial, wrongful), maçante (dull, monotonous, mumpish, preadmission, slow, tame, tiresome, troublesome, weary), contagioso (absorbing, catching, communicable, contagious, infelicitous, pestilent, stunner, taking). (various references)

Romanian		pestilenţial (fetid, miasmal, miasmic, pestilent), fatal (deadly, deathly, fatal, fateful, feral, inevitably, pernicious, pestilent, vital, weird), dãunãtor (bad, baleful, evil, hurtful, injurious, maleficent, malign, mischievous, noisome, pest, pestilent, prejudicially, sinister), contagios (catching, contagious, foul, infectious, infective, pestilent). (various references)

Russian		чумной. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		poput kuge, zarazan (catching, communicable, contagious, infectious, miasmatic, pestiferous, pestilent, plaguy, virulent, zymotic), ubistven (lethiferous, perishing, pestiferous, pestilent). (various references)

Spanish		pestilente, pestífero (pestiferous, pestilent), pesado (awkward, boring, bulky, burdensome, cumbersome, difficult, dull, ghastly, grave, hard, heavy, heavyweight, hefty, hulking, importunate, irritating, labored, laboured, lacklustre, leaden, logy, nuisance, objectionable, onerous, pestiferous, pestilent, ponderous, serious, sesquipedalian, slow, soupy, stodgy, unwieldy, valid, weary, weighty), pernicioso (damnific, maleficent, malignant, pernicious, pestiferous, pestilent). (various references)

Swedish		pestförande (pestiferous), skadlig (adverse, deleterious, derogatory, detrimental, evil, harmful, inimical, injurious, insalubrious, malign, mischievous, nocuous, noisome, noxious, pernicious, pestiferous, prejudicial), motbjudande (abhorrent, disgusting, distasteful, foul, hideous, objectionable, obnoxious, odious, offensive, repugnant, repulsive, ugly, unappealing, unpalatable, unsavory, unsavoury), irriterande (annoying, excruciating, irksome, irritant, irritants, irritating, irritative, maddening, nettlesome, pestilent, plaguey, plaguy, sickening, vexatious, worrisome). (various references)

Turkish		zararlı (baleful, baneful, corruptive, deleterious, derogatory, destructive, detrimental, evil, harmful, hurtful, ill, inimical, injurious, insalubrious, malefic, maleficent, mischievous, nocuous, noisome, noxious, pernicious, pestilent, prejudicial, unhealthy, unwholesome), tehlikeli (adventurous, breakneck, danger, dangerous, daring, forbidding, hairy, hazardous, noxious, parlous, perilous, pestilent, risky, touch and go, unsafe, venturesome, wildcat), baş belâsı (a thorn in the flesh, a thorn in the side, annoyance, bother, confounded, headache, hellbender, nuisance, old man of the sea, pain in the neck, pestilent, stiff, tease, tough, troublemaker, troublesome), öldürücü (baneful, deadly, deathlike, deathly, fatal, fateful, fell, homicidal, killing, lethal, murderous, perishing, pestilent, virulent, vital). (various references)

Ukranian		смердючий (fetid, foetid, foul, goatish, malodorous, nauseous, noisome, nosey, nosy, odoriferous, olid, putrescent, putrid, smelly, stinking), чумний, згубний (baneful, calamitous, damnatory, damnific, damning, deleterious, destructive, fatal, holocaustal, holocaustic, maleficent, malign, malignant, noxious, pernicious, pestiferous, poisonous, prejudicial, prejudicious, ruinous, withering). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	pestifer, pestifero, pestiferum, pestilens, pestilente, pestilentes, pestilentia. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "pestilential": pestilentially. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Pestilential" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pestilental, Pestilentia. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Words rhyming with "pestilential" (pronounced 'Pes`ti*len"tial'): Abbatial, Accrementitial, Agential, Antenuptial, Beneficential, bigential, Circumferential, Coessential, Coinitial, Comitial, Complacential, Concupiscential, Conferential, Confidential, Consequential, Consubstantial, Deferential, exponential, Futuritial, IMPARTIAL, inconsequential, inessential, inferential, insubstantial, interstitial, jurisprudential, martial, Nutritial, Obediential, Omnipresential, partial, Postnuptial, Precedential, Preceptial, Preferential, Prelatial, Preputial, Presential, Presidential, Primatial, Primitial, Providential, Querulential, Quintessential, Recrementitial, referential, Reminiscential, residential, reverential, Sapiential. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-e-e-i-i-l-l-n-p-s-t-t"
	-2 letters: antielites, paillettes, penalities, pistillate.
	-3 letters: antielite, antisleep, paillette, paintiest, palletise, pallettes, penalties, pestilent, plantlets, platelets, satellite, tapelines, tenailles, tinplates.
	-4 letters: alienist, alpinist, anisette, antipill, antislip, entities, entitles, intitles, lealties, lenities, lintiest, litanies, niellist, palettes, pallette, palliest, panelist, pantiles, pastille, patients, peatiest, penalise, penlites, petaline, pintails, plainest, plantlet, platelet, platiest, plenties, sepaline, spinelle, splenial.
	Words containing the letters "a-e-e-i-i-l-l-n-p-s-t-t"
	+2 letters: pelletizations, pestilentially.
	+3 letters: interpellations.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.