What does cholera mean?
Cholera is a serious infectious disease of the small intestine caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It spreads chiefly through water or food contaminated with faecal matter, and its hallmark symptom is profuse watery diarrhoea that can lead to rapid, life-threatening dehydration if untreated. The word entered English in the early seventeenth century from Latin and Greek roots relating to bile, reflecting ancient ideas about illness caused by bodily humours. Historically, cholera swept across the world in devastating pandemics during the nineteenth century, and it was the study of these outbreaks — notably John Snow's investigation of the 1854 London epidemic — that gave birth to modern epidemiology. Today the disease remains endemic in parts of Asia and Africa but is largely preventable through clean water, sanitation, and vaccination. The term appears mainly in medical, scientific, and historical contexts, and it carries strong connotations of contagion and public-health crisis.
nounAn acute infectious bacterial disease of the small intestine, caused by Vibrio cholerae, characterized by severe watery diarrhoea and dehydration; also, historically, any of various illnesses marked by vomiting, diarrhoea, or cramps.
- The acute infectious disease caused by Vibrio cholerae, marked by severe diarrhoea and rapid dehydration.
- (Historical) Any of several disorders formerly called cholera, such as cholera infantum or cholera morbus.
"The cholera outbreak of 1854 was famously traced to a single contaminated water pump on Broad Street in London."
"Nineteenth-century cities were repeatedly devastated by cholera epidemics spread through contaminated drinking water."
"Travellers to the region were advised to take precautions against cholera and other waterborne diseases."
Rarely pluralized since it names a disease rather than a countable object; the plural appears mainly in phrases like 'cholera epidemics' or in historical references to successive outbreaks of different strains.
"Historians have charted how successive choleras swept through Europe during the nineteenth century."
For centuries doctors blamed 'bad air' for cholera — until a London physician named John Snow mapped deaths around one water pump and founded modern epidemiology in the process.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cholera
Cholera derives ultimately from the Greek kholera, meaning bile, from kholē (bile), reflecting the ancient humoural theory that linked diseases to excess bile. The word passed into Latin and then into English in the early seventeenth century, when it was used loosely for various ailments involving vomiting and cramping. When the modern pandemic disease reached Europe in the early nineteenth century, English speakers adopted 'Asiatic cholera' to distinguish it, and this sense eventually became the dominant one. Cognates sharing the same root include choler (anger, once thought to arise from yellow bile), choleric, and melancholic (from 'black bile').
Related word forms
How cholera is actually used
A formal, medical register word, common in historical, epidemiological, and public-health writing. In older texts it may appear qualified as 'Asiatic cholera' (the modern disease) or in compounds like 'cholera morbus' (a milder gastroenteritis), so context from before roughly 1830 can refer to different conditions than the modern sense.
Easily confused with cholera
Choler is an archaic term for anger or irritability, while cholera is the infectious intestinal disease.
Cholesterol is a waxy substance found in the blood and body tissues, unrelated to the infectious disease cholera despite the shared Greek root.