CEPHALITIS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cephalitis mean? 

• CEPHALITIS (noun)
  The noun CEPHALITIS has 1 sense:

1. inflammation of the brain usually caused by a virus; symptoms include headache and neck pain and drowsiness and nausea and fever ('phrenitis' is no longer in scientific use)

  Familiarity information: CEPHALITIS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CEPHALITIS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Inflammation of the brain usually caused by a virus; symptoms include headache and neck pain and drowsiness and nausea and fever ('phrenitis' is no longer in scientific use)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

cephalitis; encephalitis; phrenitis

Hypernyms ("cephalitis" is a kind of...):

inflammation; redness; rubor (a response of body tissues to injury or irritation; characterized by pain and swelling and redness and heat)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cephalitis"):

acute hemorrhagic encephalitis (encephalitis that resembles apoplexy due to blood extravasation)

equine encephalitis; equine encephalomyelitis (encephalitis caused by a virus that is transmitted by a mosquito from an infected horse)

acute inclusion body encephalitis; herpes encephalitis; herpes simplex encephalitis (common form of acute encephalitis caused by herpes simplex 1; usually affects the temporal and frontal lobes)

leukoencephalitis (inflammation of the white matter of the brain)

cerebromeningitis; encephalomeningitis; meningoencephalitis (inflammation of the brain and spinal cord and their meninges)

panencephalitis (diffuse inflammation of the entire brain)

encephalitis lethargica; epidemic encephalitis; lethargic encephalitis; sleeping sickness; sleepy sickness (an encephalitis that was epidemic between 1915 and 1926; symptoms include paralysis of the extrinsic eye muscle and extreme muscular weakness)

West Nile encephalitis (encephalitis caused by the West Nile virus; can be fatal in humans and horses and birds)