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# pestilence

«pestilence» in Mova's early modern english dictionary: **plague, deadly disease** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### kind

archaic sense

### modern equivalent

plague, deadly disease

### part of speech

noun

### meaning for a pupil

A deadly disease that spreads quickly among many people, such as the plague. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/P/pestilence/#m1)

### how it differs from today

Old or formal word; today we usually say plague or epidemic, so the old word is used here.

### examples

- I will smite them with the pestilence, and destroy them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they.' (Torah NUM.14.12, JPS 1917) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/P/pestilence/#x1)
- We fly to warm countries, and cool the sultry air that destroys mankind with the pestilence. (Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/P/pestilence/#x2)
- Surely now I had put forth My hand, and smitten thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou hadst been cut off from the earth. (Torah EXO.9.15, JPS 1917) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/P/pestilence/#x3)

### primary record

pestilence

### tests

rate: sense (≥3 uses in the Torah, ≥10× EWT there, Wiktionary: an archaic sense); corpora 21 (Torah 5, tales 16, Sefer Yetzirah 0); EWT 0; ratio 2.4 (Torah alone 11.7); Wiktionary archaic (a sense)

### In the corpora

- [And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/JER.572/)
- [Before him goeth the pestilence, and fiery bolts go forth at His feet.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/HAB.47/)
- [He levelled a path for His anger; He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.1377/)
- [That He will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.1638/)
- [Of the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor of the destruction that wasteth at noonday.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.1641/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «pestilence» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/emode/P/pestilence/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.