leper

meaning in plain English

A person who has a serious skin and nerve disease that can spread to others.

Imagine a leper standing apart, skin marked, reminding you it's a person with a contagious skin disease.

for example

In the old days, people called lepers were often forced to live far away from everyone else.

Imagine a neighbor everyone avoids at the grocery store, not because they’re rude, but because they have leper and people still act like the disease might jump through the air. Why do we cross the street to dodge someone who’s already isolated by fear, even if they’ve done nothing wrong?