Fever

How to spell fever

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fever

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fever mean?

1. nounAn abnormally high body temperature, usually a sign of illness or infection.
2. nounA state of intense, restless excitement or enthusiasm.

Fever in a sentence

• The child ran a high fever through the night.

• A fever of anticipation spread through the crowd before kickoff.

• Paracetamol can help bring a fever down.

• The whole office worked at a fever pitch before the launch.

Where does fever come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word reaches back to the Latin febris, which meant a fever or a burning heat in the body. It entered English very early: Old English already had the form fefor or fefer, taken directly from Latin during the Roman influence on Britain. After the Norman Conquest the related Old French word fievre reinforced the borrowing and helped settle the modern shape and spelling. The underlying sense has stayed remarkably stable for two thousand years, always tied to an abnormally high body temperature, while a figurative use for intense excitement or restless energy developed much later. Because the word is short, common, and spelled just as it sounds, it sits among the more transparent survivors of England's earliest Latin borrowings.

How the word is built

• fev- (from Latin febris: fever, heat)
• -er (noun ending)