variola minor

1. 1.

   a mild form of smallpox caused by a less virulent form of the virus

   Synonymsalastrimpseudosmallpoxpseudovariolamilk poxwhite poxWest Indian smallpoxCuban itchKaffir pox

   Broadersmallpox
2. 2.

   a type of smallpox virus that has a fatality rate of about 1 percent

   Synonymsvariola minor virus

   Broadervariola virus

Questions about variola minor

What does variola minor mean?

variola minor means "a mild form of smallpox caused by a less virulent form of the virus". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for variola minor?

Close synonyms include alastrim, pseudosmallpox, pseudovariola, milk pox, white pox. 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 minor a common word?

variola minor 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.