kissing disease

1. 1.

   an acute disease characterized by fever and swollen lymph nodes and an abnormal increase of mononuclear leucocytes or monocytes in the bloodstream; not highly contagious; some believe it can be transmitted by kissing

   Synonymsinfectious mononucleosismononucleosismonoglandular fever

   Broaderinfectious disease

Questions about kissing disease

What does kissing disease mean?

kissing disease means "an acute disease characterized by fever and swollen lymph nodes and an abnormal increase of mononuclear leucocytes or monocytes in the bloodstream; not highly contagious; some believe it can be transmitted by kissing".

What is another word for kissing disease?

Close synonyms include infectious mononucleosis, mononucleosis, mono, glandular fever. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is kissing disease a common word?

kissing disease is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.