variola major

Questions about variola major

What does variola major mean?

variola major means "a highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever and weakness and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs that slough off leaving scars". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for variola major?

Close synonyms include smallpox, variola, variola major virus. 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 variola major a common word?

variola major is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.