A sudden start or eruption of something, especially a disease or violence that occurs suddenly and spreads.
From 'out' plus 'break'—the prefix 'out-' combined with the verb 'break,' both from Old English. The compound emerged in the 1600s to describe sudden, explosive events.
The word 'outbreak' became especially famous during COVID-19, but epidemiologists use it to track patterns in disease spread, and studying outbreaks has taught us how germs move through populations in predictable ways.
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