leper
leper Lexical Profile
leper Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person who is suffering from leprosy (Hansen's disease), a chronic infectious disease affecting the skin and peripheral nerves.
"In medieval Europe, a leper was often forced to live in an isolated community outside the town walls."
A person who is shunned, ostracized, or rejected by others for moral or social reasons.
"After exposing the company's financial fraud, the whistleblower was treated like a social leper by his former colleagues."
Word Nuance & Usage
In modern clinical contexts, referring to someone with Hansen's disease as a 'leper' is considered stigmatizing and outdated; person-first phrasing such as 'a person affected by leprosy' is preferred.
• Rhymes for leper
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Middle English, originally referring to the disease itself, from Old French lepre, via Latin from Greek lepra ('scaly skin disease'), derived from lepein ('to peel').