Pestilence /(?)/

Pes·ti·lence

Pestilence

n.
  1. Specifically, the disease known as the plague; hence, any contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating.
    The pestilence that walketh in darkness.
    — Ps. xci. 6.
  2. Fig.: That which is pestilent, noxious, or pernicious to the moral character of great numbers.
    I'll pour this pestilence into his ear.

Phrases & Compounds

Pestilence weed
the butterbur coltsfoot (Petasites vulgaris), so called because formerly considered a remedy for the plague.