"pestilences" in the noun sense
1. plague, pestilence, pest, pestis
a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal
2. plague, pestilence, pest
any epidemic disease with a high death rate
3. pestilence, canker
a pernicious and malign influence that is hard to get rid of
"racism is a pestilence at the heart of the nation"
"according to him, I was the canker in their midst"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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