Definition of "meningitis" []

• Inflammation of the meninges of the brain and the spinal cord, most often caused by a bacterial or viral infection and characterized by fever, vomiting, intense headache, and stiff neck. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Since the mid 1990s, epidemics in this area have been on an unprecedented scale and epidemic meningitis has also emerged in countries south of the “meningitis belt”."
• "Bacterial meningitis is a rare, but often deadly disease."
• "Viral meningitis is often less severe than bacterial meningitis."