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virus

vi·rus

UK/ˈvaɪ.ɹəs/ US/ˈvaɪrʌs/ common informal

noun

1.

(virology) ultramicroscopic infectious agent that replicates itself only within cells of living hosts; many are pathogenic; a piece of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) wrapped in a thin coat of protein

2.

a harmful or corrupting agency

  • “bigotry is a virus that must not be allowed to spread”
  • “the virus of jealousy is latent in everyone”
3.

a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer

  • “a true virus cannot spread to another computer without human assistance”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English virus, from Latin vīrus (“poison, slime, venom”), via rhotacism from Proto-Italic *weizos, from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“fluidity, slime, poison”).

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.