Library / English Dictionary

COMMON COLD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A mild viral infection involving the nose and respiratory passages (but not the lungs)

Example:

will they never find a cure for the common cold?

Synonyms:

cold; common cold

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("common cold" is a kind of...):

communicable disease (a disease that can be communicated from one person to another)

respiratory disease; respiratory disorder; respiratory illness (a disease affecting the respiratory system)

Meronyms (parts of "common cold"):

rhinorrhea (persistent watery mucus discharge from the nose (as in the common cold))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "common cold"):

head cold (a common cold affecting the nasal passages and resulting in congestion and sneezing and headache)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Symptoms of the flu come on suddenly and are worse than those of the common cold.

(Flu, NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

Many problems besides the common cold can affect the nose.

(Nose Injuries and Disorders, NIH)

Sneezing, sore throat, a stuffy nose, coughing - everyone knows the symptoms of the common cold.

(Common Cold, NIH: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

They found that adults whose parents separated but did not speak to each other during individuals' childhoods were three times as likely to develop a cold when intentionally exposed to a common cold virus than adults whose parents had remained together or separated but continued to communicate.

(How Parents' Separation Impacts Adult Kids, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)