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endemic

UK/ɛnˈdɛm.ɪk/US/ɛnˈdɛm.ɪk/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,458 of 15,258mostly written

Endemic means regularly found in one place or group. Endemic to the island, endemic corruption, an endemic disease.

In biology it means found nowhere else, so a species endemic to an island exists only there. In medicine it means constantly present at a steady level, as against an epidemic, which is a sudden rise.

Definitions of endemic

  1. 1adjectiveendemicRegularly found in one place or group.C1

    “Corruption is endemic in the city's police force.”

endemic is a quality.

Where it comes from

Greek endemos means among the people or native, from en, in, plus demos, people.

  1. Ancient Greek

    ἐν — in

  2. English, today

    endemic

Built from

  • δῆμος · Ancient Greek — people

From Ancient Greek ἐν (“in”) + δῆμος (“people”) ic. Possibly via Ancient Greek ἔνδημος (“among one's people, at home, native”) and/or French endémique. by surface analysis, en- + demic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

endemic in the wild

  • Lake Baikal is home to thousands of species of plants and animals, many of them endemic to the region.

    Lake Baikal

  • Socotra is unusual in hosting a large number of species that are endemic; a third of its plant life is found nowhere else on Earth.

    Socotra

  • Also, a disease that is usually endemic can become epidemic.

    Endemic (epidemiology)

  • Consequently, there is no constant baseline level of malaria infection in the UK, and the disease is not endemic.

    Endemic (epidemiology)

  • An endemic species can also be referred to as an endemism or, in scientific literature, as an endemite.

    Endemism

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.