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# sepsis

«sepsis» in Mova's school dictionary: **A very serious illness that happens when the body's fight…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (sepsis — usually uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (medicine) A very serious illness that happens when the body's fight against an infection goes wrong and starts to harm its own organs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sepsis/#m1)

2) (older use) Any poisoning of the body by germs from a wound or infection. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sepsis/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In health and science lessons sepsis shows why cuts should be kept clean and why a very ill person needs a doctor quickly. Health posters say «Think sepsis» and list warning signs such as very fast breathing, mottled or bluish skin, confusion and feeling worse than ever before. It is an emergency: call 999, 911, 000 or 111 as advice says. In stories it may explain why a character in the past died from a small wound.

### examples

- Sepsis can start from a small cut that gets badly infected. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sepsis/#x1)
- The nurse said sepsis is an emergency and needs treatment fast. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sepsis/#x2)
- Doctors gave him antibiotics to fight the sepsis. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sepsis/#x3)
- Before germs were understood, many soldiers died of sepsis after battles. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sepsis/#x4)
- Keep a scrape clean so it does not get infected. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sepsis/#x5)
- If someone is very ill, confused and breathing fast, an adult should ask a doctor about sepsis. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sepsis/#x6)
- Florence Nightingale's clean hospitals helped cut deaths from infection. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sepsis/#x7)
- She spent a week in hospital with sepsis but made a full recovery. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sepsis/#x8)

### note

Uncountable; adjective «septic». Sounds like «SEP-sis». It is not a germ itself and you cannot «catch» sepsis from someone; it is the body's reaction to an infection. Myth: it only happens to very old people — anyone can get it, but early treatment helps most people recover.

### Trees and pragmatics

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