erysipelas
/ˌɛɹ.əˈsɪp.əl.əs/noun
erysipelas is a noun meaning “An acute, sometimes recurrent febrile disease caused by infection of a hemolytic streptococcus, associated with intense edematous local inflammation…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-R-Y-S-I-P-E-L-A-S and has 5 syllables, and it appears about once in every 22 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of erysipelas is erysipelases.
What does erysipelas mean?
noun
- 1
An acute, sometimes recurrent febrile disease caused by infection of a hemolytic streptococcus, associated with intense edematous local inflammation of the skin and subcutaneous tissues, and marked by large raised red patches on the skin.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce erysipelas?
- UK /ˌɛ.ɹɪˈsɪp.ɪl.əs/
- US /ˌɛɹ.əˈsɪp.əl.əs/
- US /ˌɛɹ.əˈsɪp.ləs/
Erysipelas has 5 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-erysipelas.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of erysipelas
- erysipelases plural
- erisypelas
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is erysipelas?
Erysipelas appears about once in every 22 million words in written English, the 141,699th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Erysipelas in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense acute febrile disease:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | érysipèle |
| German | Erysipel, Rotlauf, Rose, Wundrose |
| Portuguese | erisipela |
| Spanish | erisipela |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does erysipelas come from?
From Middle English erisipila, borrowed from Latin erysipelas, from Ancient Greek ἐρῠσῐ́πελᾰς (erŭsĭ́pelăs), probably related to ἐρῠθρός (erŭthrós, “red”) and πέλμᾰ (pélmă, “the sole of a foot”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).