Definition of "common cold" []

• See cold. (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.

• "One of the reasons pertussis is so scary is that during its initial incubation period, its symptoms—low-grade fever, slight aches, mild cough—closely resemble those of other, relatively common illnesses, ranging from the common cold to the flu."
• "But it has only been with the help of more recent and sophisticated lab techniques that scientists have been capable of pinpointing how certain viruses, called enteroviruses, second only to the common cold as the most common cause of viral infections, incite some cases of type 1 diabetes."