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疠 (lì), along with its traditional form 癘, denotes virulent epidemic diseases, pestilence, or malignant sores that afflict large populations. It is a phono-semantic compound composed of the sickness radical 疒 (chuáng), signaling a medical condition, and a phonetic element. In the simplified character, the phonetic is 万 (wàn, "ten thousand"), while the traditional uses 萬 (wàn). The phonetic's meaning "ten thousand" also reflects the mass scale of the affliction. Classical medical texts often combine 疠 with other characters to form terms for epidemiological crises.
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