Definition of: typhus

(tī′fəs) noun Pathol.
An acute, contagious, rickettsial disease caused by a micro–organism (Rickettsia prowazeki) and marked by high fever with eruption of red spots, cerebral disorders, and extreme prostration; typhus fever: also called Brill's disease. Epidemic typhus is transmitted by the bite of the body louse, and endemic or murine typhus by the bite of the rat flea. [<NL <Gk. typhos smoke, a stupor <typhein smoke]
—ty′·phous adjective