Sudden occurrences or eruptions of something, especially disease, violence, or conflict, often spreading rapidly.
Compound word from 'out' plus 'break,' creating the sense of something 'breaking out' suddenly. Used since at least the 1500s, originally for sudden violent eruptions, later applied to disease.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, epidemiologists tracked 'outbreak curves' to show how diseases explode exponentially—a visual reminder that the word 'outbreak' is really about something suddenly escaping confinement and spreading wildly.
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