Definition: The term pandemic refers to an infectious disease that is widespread or even global in distribution. A pandemic affects a wide geographic area or the entire world, and affects many individuals. In contrast, an epidemic a more localized disease outbreak.
The agent of disease is usually viral or bacterial. Diseases transmitted between animals and humans (zoonotic diseases) are common, such as the recent cases of Swine Flu.
The word pandemic originates from Latin (pandemus) and Greek1 (pandemos). Pan- means "all" and -demos means "people."
Reference1: Dictionary.com
Photo: Pig in a field © jere-me on Flickr.
Pronunciation: pan-dem-ick
Examples:
The World Health Organization declared the H1N1 flu a global pandemic in June of 2009.
