En·de·mic En·de·mic·al a. Med.
1. Peculiar to a district or particular locality, or class of persons; as, an endemic disease.
Note: ☞ An endemic disease is one which is constantly present to a greater or less degree in any place, as distinguished from an epidemic disease, which prevails widely at some one time, or periodically, and from a sporadic disease, of which a few instances occur now and then.
2. Belonging or native to a particular people or country; native as distinguished from introduced or naturalized; hence, regularly or ordinarily occurring in a given region; local; as, a plant endemic in Australia; -- often distinguished from exotic.
The traditions of folklore . . . form a kind of endemic symbolism. --F. W. H. Myers.
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endemical
adj : of or relating to a disease (or anything resembling a
disease) constantly present to greater or lesser extent
in a particular locality; "diseases endemic to the
tropics"; "endemic malaria"; "food shortages and
starvation are endemic in certain parts of the world"
[syn: endemic] [ant: epidemic, ecdemic]