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View synonyms for infectious

infectious

[ in-fek-shuhs ]

adjective

  1. communicable by infection, as from one person to another or from one part of the body to another:

    infectious diseases.

    Synonyms: catching

  2. causing or communicating infection.
  3. tending to spread from one to another:

    infectious laughter.

  4. Law. capable of contaminating with illegality; exposing to seizure or forfeiture.
  5. Obsolete. diseased.


infectious

/ ɪnˈfɛkʃəs /

adjective

  1. (of a disease) capable of being transmitted Compare contagious
  2. (of a disease) caused by microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, or protozoa
  3. causing or transmitting infection
  4. tending or apt to spread, as from one person to another

    infectious mirth

  5. international law
    1. tainting or capable of tainting with illegality
    2. rendering liable to seizure or forfeiture


infectious

/ ĭn-fĕkshəs /

  1. Capable of causing infection.
  2. See Note at contagious


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Derived Forms

  • inˈfectiously, adverb
  • inˈfectiousness, noun

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Other Words From

  • in·fectious·ly adverb
  • in·fectious·ness noun
  • nonin·fectious adjective
  • nonin·fectious·ly adverb
  • nonin·fectious·ness noun
  • unin·fectious adjective
  • unin·fectious·ly adverb
  • unin·fectious·ness noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of infectious1

First recorded in 1535–45; infect(ion) + -ious

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Synonym Study

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Example Sentences

If you’re sleeping in a bed with them, sharing your home with them, and so on, you already have a decent risk of swapping the virus, or really any other infectious disease.

Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease doctor and a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco, said the focus on transmission in the context of Covid-19 vaccines can be misleading when comparing them to other vaccines.

From Vox

That could pose a problem even for vaccinated adults, says Mobeen Rathore, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

As we learn how to address current and future pandemics, it is worth understanding what we learned from the great infectious disease fights of the past.

From Vox

That’s especially true now as new, more infectious coronavirus variants await — putting us at risk of an even bigger surge than the one we saw during the holiday season if we ease up.

From Vox

For most infectious, the amount is 100 or even 1,000 times that.

Although bats may have creeped us out for centuries, their links to emerging infectious diseases are much more recent.

In Malaysia and Bangladesh, a devastating infectious neurological disease emerged just a few years after Hendra.

The only existing study, printed in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in 1999, leaves scientists with the same questions.

Adam Lausing, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Michigan, emphasized that Ebola is not a respiratory disease.

The last movement had the infectious gayety that Mozart's things often have, with a magnificent cadenza by himself.

The infectious diseases in which leukocytosis is absent (p. 160) often cause a slight decrease of leukocytes.

(b) Acute infectious diseases, especially rheumatism and typhoid fever.

Predominance of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (pus-corpuscles) points to an acute infectious process (Fig. 117).

The usual cause of acute infectious conjunctivitis, especially in cities, seems to be the Koch-Weeks bacillus.

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infectioninfectious anemia of horses