n]
| 1. | an act or fact of infecting; state of being infected. |
| 2. | an infecting with germs of disease, as through the medium of infected insects, air, water, or clothing. |
| 3. | an infecting agency or influence. |
| 4. | an infectious disease: Is this infection very dangerous? |
| 5. | the condition of suffering an infection. |
| 6. | corruption of another's opinions, beliefs, moral principles, etc.; moral contamination. |
| 7. | an influence or impulse passing from one to another and affecting feeling or action. |
| 8. | Grammar. (in Celtic languages) assimilation in which a vowel is influenced by a following vowel or semivowel; umlaut. |
Invasion of the body or a body part by a pathogenic organism, which multiplies and produces harmful effects on the body's tissues.
infection in·fec·tion (ĭn-fěk'shən)
n.
Invasion by and multiplication of pathogenic microorganisms in a bodily part or tissue, which may produce subsequent tissue injury and progress to overt disease through a variety of cellular or toxic mechanisms.
An instance of being infected.
An agent or a contaminated substance responsible for one's becoming infected.
The pathological state resulting from having been infected.
An infectious disease.