Meanings
plural pertusses
- countableuncountablemedicineWhooping cough.
2015, Dr. Stephen Berger, Pertussis: Global Status, GIDEON Informatics, Inc., E-book, page 343, During 1993 to 2004, the hospitalization rate [in the US] for pertussis among infants ages <= 2 months was 239 per 100,000 live births.
2 more examples
With the introduction of an improved and standardized pertussis vaccine in the 1940s, there followed a remarkable decline in pertussis in the United States, most of the Western world, and Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.
1976, Charles R. Manclark, “The Current Status of Pertussis Vaccine: An Overview”, in D. Perlman, editor, Advances in Applied Microbiology, volume 20, page 1Bordetella pertussis is a Gram-negative bacterial pathogen that infects the human respiratory tract, causing the disease pertussis or whooping cough.
2009, Zoë E. V. Worthington, Nicholas H. Carbonetti, “18: Bordetella pertussis”, in Karl Wooldridge, editor, Bacterial Secreted Proteins: Secretory Mechanisms and Role in Pathogenesis, page 413
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna disease of the respiratory mucous membrane
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From New Latin, from Latin per- (“thorough”) + tussis (“cough”).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
pertussis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pertussis
“pertussis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pertussis. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pertussis,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pertussis.
Source: pertussis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.