This noun denotes gangrene, a progressive decay or spreading infection that consumes healthy tissue. In 2 Timothy 2:17, false teaching is compared to gangrene, spreading its destructive influence throughout the body of believers. The medical metaphor is vivid—just as gangrene progressively destroys living flesh, doctrinal error infects and corrupts sound faith community by community, person by person. The translations uniformly use medical terminology (Spanish gangrena, French/German retaining the Greek form or using Brand for "mortification"), all recognizing the progressive, consuming nature of this spiritual disease.