tifo

From Italian, originally referring to the disease typhus but figuratively extended to refer to the fevered behaviour of football fans.

tifo (plural tifos)

1. (sports) A form of choreography displayed by supporters on the terraces of an arena or stadium, where they make a large-scale pattern or picture by holding up, or wearing, various materials.

• Foti, OTIF, TOFI, tofi

• IPA^(key): /ˈti.fo/
• Rhymes: -ifo
• Hyphenation: tì‧fo

From New Latin typhus, from Ancient Greek τῦφος (tûphos).

tifo m (plural tifi)

1. (pathology) typhus
2. (sports) (excessive) enthusiasm; hence fan

• tifoso

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

tifo

1. first-person singular present indicative of tifare

• -fito, Foti, fito-, tofi

• typho (obsolete)

From Ancient Greek τῦφος (tûphos).

• Rhymes: -ifu

tifo m (plural tifos)

1. (pathology) typhus (disease characterised by high recurrent fever)

• tifoide

• “tifo”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “tifo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• IPA^(key): /ˈtifo/ [ˈt̪i.fo]
• Rhymes: -ifo
• Syllabification: ti‧fo

tifo m (uncountable)

1. alternative form of tifus

• “tifo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Borrowed from Italian tifo. First attested in 1997.

tifo n

1. (sports) tifo

• tifo in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker

• IPA^(key): [ˈti.fo]

tifo

1. to tap palm trees for sap

• Rika Hayami-Allen (2001), A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish توفو (tifo), from Greek τύφος (týfos). Doublet of tifüs (“typhus”).

• IPA^(key): /tiˈfo/

tifo (definite accusative tifoyu, uncountable)

1. typhoid fever, abdominal typhus, a disease by the a bacterium of the subspecies Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica

   Synonym: karahumma

• “tifo”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
• Ayverdi, İlhan (2010), “tifo”, in Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük, a reviewed and expanded single-volume edition, Istanbul: Kubbealtı Neşriyatı
• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007), “tifo”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 5, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 4822
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–), “tifo”, in Nişanyan Sözlük