- 1a large number of cases of a particular disease happening at the same time in a particular community the outbreak of a flu epidemic an epidemic of measles Effectively, tobacco companies will be exporting an epidemic of smoking-related diseases, the campaign suggests.
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- 2a sudden rapid increase in how often something bad happens an epidemic of crime in the inner cities
Car theft is now reaching epidemic proportions. compare pandemicSee epidemic in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
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