virusnoun [ C ]
uk/ˈvaɪə.rəs/us/ˈvaɪ.rəs/virus noun [ C ] (DISEASE)
B2 an extremely small piece of organic material that causes disease in humans, animals, and plants:
the chickenpox/flu/herpes/mumps virus
Evidence suggested that the AIDS virus was spreading very quickly among the heterosexual community.
B2 a disease caused by a virus:
I don't know exactly what's wrong with her - I think she has some kind of virus.
Several employees were off work with a vomiting virus.
More examples
- A local doctor was the first to raise the alarm about this latest virus.
- The virus is contracted through exchange of bodily fluids.
- All the tomato plants are infected with a virus.
- The doctors have attributed the cause of the illness to an unknown virus.
- It's possible to pass on the virus to others through physical contact.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Bacteria, moulds, germs & viruses
- adenovirus
- antimicrobial
- bacteriology
- bacteriophage
- C. difficile
- E. coli
- fungal
- fungoid
- fungus
- germ
- HIV-positive
- listeria
- microbe
- microorganism
- mould
- organism
- probiotic
- shitake mushroom
- taenia
- West Nile virus
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Disease & illness - general words
virus noun [ C ] (COMPUTER PROBLEM)
B1 a computer program or part of a computer program that can make copies of itself and is intended to prevent the computer from working normally
Examples
- A computer virus may lurk unseen in a computer's memory, calling up and infecting each of the machine's data files in turn.
- The virus deletes files and corrupts essential core microchips leaving computers unusable.
- All their customer information was wiped off the computer by a virus.
- If you think there may be a virus, don't open the attachment.
- I got a virus alert when I downloaded my email.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Computer programming & software
- abandonware
- ad-blocker
- ad-blocking
- adware
- alpha
- analytics
- backup software
- CD-RW
- compile
- killer app
- lisp
- LMS
- low-level language
- macro
- mashup
- patch
- shortcut
- systems analyst
- virtual memory
- worm
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