A sudden occurrence of a disease (or other unpleasant thing). see epidemic, pandemic.

An outbreak is a higher-than-normal rate of occurrence of a disease. The terms epidemic and pandemic are often used to describe the magnitude or nature of an outbreak or series of outbreaks. In other words, think of outbreak as the building block of several other coronavirus-related terms.

An outbreak is when a disease spreads quickly in a group of people (or animals or plants or …) in one place at one time. When a bunch of people in one town get food poisoning, that’s an outbreak. An epidemic is a really big outbreak, but still just one place at one time.

A sudden increase in the number of cases of a particular disease in a relatively small geographical area. COVID-19 is thought to have originated in the Hubei Province in China. Also see related terms, “epidemic” and “pandemic.”

A sudden, often unexpected rise in something harmful (e.g. disease, war, panic).