How to Use syphilis in a Sentence

syphilis

noun
Definition of syphilisnext
  • In the 1490s, French troops storming the city of Naples caught and spread syphilis.
    — Marco Della Cava, USA TODAY, 27 Feb. 2020
  • The flu can last a month, but syphilis is like four days.
    — Danielle Turchiano, chicagotribune.com, 13 Oct. 2019
  • By then, only 74 of the men with syphilis still survived.
    — Theresa MacHemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Dec. 2020
  • One of the most egregious examples was a 1932 study of syphilis in Black men.
    — NBC News, 3 Dec. 2020
  • Early signs of syphilis are sores that can be firm, round and painless.
    — Kristen Rogers, CNN, 29 Nov. 2021
  • Even though penicillin had been proven to treat syphilis by 1947, these men were denied the treatment.
    — Jason Ashe, The Conversation, 24 June 2019
  • Uniontown isn’t far from Tuskegee, the site of the notorious syphilis study performed on black men in the mid-1900s.
    — Anna Claire Vollers | Avollers@al.com, al, 29 Dec. 2019
  • In 1897, French painter Paul Gauguin was swamped with debt, sick with syphilis and stricken with grief over the death of his daughter.
    — Lee Billings, WSJ, 14 Aug. 2020
  • And much like syphilis, name-dropping is super-grody and spreads quickly.
    — David Canfield, EW.com, 13 Aug. 2019
  • Most famously, the Tuskegee syphilis study began in 1932 with the goal of tracking the damage the disease does to the human body.
    — Michael A. Fletcher, National Geographic, 16 Oct. 2020
  • More than 1,300 people were exposed to syphilis and other STDs.
    — Robert Kuznia, CNN, 13 May 2020
  • At the time the study commenced there was no cure for syphilis, which was a serious and widespread problem.
    — Bruce Bartlett, The New Republic, 26 Apr. 2021
  • Just six months after van Gogh’s death, Theo followed him to the grave, succumbing to the effects of syphilis at age 33.
    — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian, 20 Sep. 2019
  • The lack of treatment for syphilis carried on for years, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
    — Calvin Watkins, Dallas News, 3 Feb. 2021
  • There were 22 stillbirths or neonatal deaths because of syphilis last year, the report said.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Oct. 2019
  • One of the more disgusting images from the show involved the woman whose nose had been destroyed by syphilis.
    — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 25 Feb. 2021
  • Even when penicillin became widely used to treat syphilis in 1947, it was not offered to the test subjects.
    — NBC News, 3 Dec. 2020
  • People remember the Tuskegee syphilis study, in which Black men were lied to and went untreated.
    — Star Tribune, 27 Feb. 2021
  • In the 1950′s, researchers at Tuskegee knowingly failed to provide treatment for Black men with syphilis.
    — al, 14 Jan. 2021
  • And Long Beach now has the state’s second-highest rate of chlamydia and third-highest rates of gonorrhea and syphilis.
    — Rosanna Xia, latimes.com, 11 Mar. 2018
  • Three local babies were also born with syphilis last year.
    — James E. Causey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 13 Mar. 2018
  • But the syringes were long, left skin pockmarked and could transmit other diseases such as syphilis.
    — Pedro Cantisano, The Conversation, 7 Dec. 2020
  • The county had the 14th highest rate of congenital syphilis.
    — Soumya Karlamangla, latimes.com, 15 May 2018
  • Since late-stage syphilis attacked the nose, those so afflicted were seen as bearing proof of moral turpitude.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2022
  • Black men who know about the Tuskegee (syphilis experiment) are less likely to go to the doctor and that’s happening now.
    — Tammy Joyner, Detroit Free Press, 20 Apr. 2020
  • This year, the state health department warned of a syphilis outbreak, with Alaska recording more cases so far in 2018 than in all of last year.
    — Tegan Hanlon, Anchorage Daily News, 29 May 2018
  • By 1848 Heine was confined to his bed, most likely paralyzed by syphilis.
    — Adam Kirsch, WSJ, 18 Dec. 2020
  • During the 20th century, researchers lied to hundreds of Black men and withheld treatment from them over decades in the Tuskegee syphilis study.
    — Kate Baggaley, Popular Science, 12 Oct. 2020
  • The increases in syphilis and other STDs may have several causes, experts say.
    — Mike Stobbe, Fortune, 20 Sep. 2022
  • People should also be tested for syphilis early in pregnancy.
    — Time, 27 Sep. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'syphilis.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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