Meanings
plural sleeping sicknesses
- Any of several diseases of which lethargy is a major symptom:
- uncountableusuallymedicineEspecially, African sleeping sickness, an endemic infectious disease of humans and animals in tropical Africa, caused by a parasitic trypanosome.
Synonyms: African trypanosomiasis, negro lethargy, sleepy distemper
- uncountableusuallymedicineAnimal trypanosomiasis.
- uncountableusuallymedicineEastern equine encephalitis, caused by a zoonotic alphavirus and arbovirus present in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
- uncountableusuallymedicineEncephalitis lethargica, a form of encephalitis, of unknown cause, that swept the world in the 1920s.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounEspecially, African sleeping sickness, an endemic infectious disease of humans and animals in tropical Africa, caused by a parasitic trypanosome.
More synonyms by meaning
nounan encephalitis that was epidemic between 1915 and 1926; symptoms include paralysis of the extrinsic eye muscle and extreme muscular weakness
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 昏睡病
- 昏睡病 (hūnshuìbìng)infectious disease
Dutch slaapziekte
- slaapziekteinfectious disease
Esperanto dormomalsano
- dormomalsanoinfectious disease
Finnish unitauti
- unitautiinfectious disease
French maladie du sommeil
- maladie du sommeilinfectious disease
German Schlafkrankheit
- Schlafkrankheitinfectious disease
Hungarian álomkór
- álomkórinfectious disease
Polish śpiączka afrykańska
- śpiączka afrykańskainfectious disease
Portuguese doença do sono
- doença do sonoinfectious disease
Romanian boala somnului
- boala somnuluiinfectious disease
Russian со́нная боле́знь
- со́нная боле́знь (sónnaja boléznʹ)infectious disease
Spanish enfermedad del sueño
- enfermedad del sueñoinfectious disease
Swahili malale
- malaleinfectious disease
Ukrainian со́нна хворо́ба
- со́нна хворо́ба (sónna xvoróba)infectious disease
Cite this entry
sleeping sickness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sleeping%20sickness
“sleeping sickness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sleeping%20sickness. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sleeping sickness,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sleeping%20sickness.
Source: sleeping sickness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.