outbreak

English

Etymology

From Middle English outbreken, oute-breken, from Old English ūtābrecan (“to break out”), equivalent to out- +‎ break. Cognate with Saterland Frisian uutbreeke (“to break out; burst out”), West Frisian útbrekke (“to break out”), Dutch uitbreken (“to break out, burst out”), German ausbrechen (“to break out, erupt”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈaʊtbɹeɪk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: out‧break

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:

outbreak

Wikipedia

outbreak (plural outbreaks)

1. An eruption; the sudden appearance of a rash, disease, etc.

   Any epidemic outbreak causes understandable panic.

2. A sudden increase.

   There has been an outbreak of vandalism at the school.

   • 2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR‎:

     One such investigation described how kindness can be contagious. It was sparked by reports of an outbreak of kindness on a cold December morning in 2012.

3. (figurative) An outburst or sudden eruption, especially of violence and mischief.

   There has been an outbreak of broken windows in the street.

4. Synonym of breakout (“escape from prison”).

Synonyms

• (figurative outburst): outburst, tumult

Antonyms

• inbreak

Derived terms

• interoutbreak
• intraoutbreak
• postoutbreak
• preoutbreak
• sun outage

Translations

an eruption, sudden appearance

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: изригване n (izrigvane) Catalan: brot (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Danish: udbrud n Dutch: uitbarsting (nl), uitbraak (nl) n Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Finnish: purkaus (fi), puhkeaminen (fi) French: éruption (fr) f, déclenchement (fr), apparition (fr) German: Ausbruch (de) m, Auftreten (de) n, Entfesselung f Hungarian: please add this translation if you can Irish: ráig f Italian: scoppio (it) m, insorgenza (it) f, Japanese: please add this translation if you can Korean: please add this translation if you can Maori: kautorohītanga, kaitorohītanga Persian: شیوع (fa) (šoyu') Polish: wybuch (pl) m Portuguese: surto (pt) m Romanian: izbucnire (ro) f Russian: вспы́шка (ru) f (vspýška), взрыв (ru) m (vzryv) Spanish: brote (es) m, irrupción (es) f, surgimiento m Welsh: cychwyn (cy) m, cychwyniad m, tarddiant m

a sudden increase

Bulgarian: изблик (bg) m (izblik) Danish: bølge (da) c Dutch: uitbarsting (nl), explosie (nl) Finnish: aalto (fi) French: explosion (fr) German: sprunghafter Anstieg, plötzliche Zunahme, Massenvermehrung f (biol.), Schwemme (de) f Italian: diffusione (it) f Persian: شیوع (fa) (šoyu') Polish: wybuch (pl) m Romanian: please add this translation if you can

(fig.) an outburst or sudden eruption, especially violent

Albanian: please add this translation if you can Armenian: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: въстание (bg) n (vǎstanie) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: uitbarsting (nl), uitbreken (nl) n Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Estonian: please add this translation if you can Finnish: purkaus (fi), puhkeaminen (fi) French: éruption (fr), explosion (fr) Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: Ausbruch (de) m, plötzliches Auftreten, Lawine (de) f, Flut (de) f Hungarian: please add this translation if you can Irish: ráig f Italian: esplosione (it) f, eruzione (it) f Latvian: please add this translation if you can Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can Polish: wybuch (pl) m Romanian: izbucnire (ro) f Russian: please add this translation if you can Slovak: please add this translation if you can Spanish: eclosión (es) f, surgimiento m Turkish: please add this translation if you can Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can Welsh: ffrwydrad (cy) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

French: (please verify) éruption (fr) f

Verb

outbreak (third-person singular simple present outbreaks, present participle outbreaking, simple past outbroke, past participle outbroken)

1. (intransitive) To burst out or break forth.

See also

• breakout

Anagrams

• break out, breakout, kabouter, outbrake