Noun: virus
| Singular | virus |
| Plural | viruses; viri; virii |
Sample Sentences
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Viruses are the smallest and most simplified forms of life. [2001, Leslie Iversen, Drugs: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 64:]
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Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. [2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 193:]
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Meronym: virion (individual particle)
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Some viruses, such as norovirus, cause sporadic outbreaks of gastroenteritis.
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Under electron microscopy, a few viruses were seen floating near the cells.
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Not much virus was detectable on a nucleic acid test; the viral load was very low.
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Unless professionally inspected, they [plants] may also carry along unseen pests and diseases (particularly small insects and microbes such as virus or bacteria) whose populations might explode catastrophically in new locations. [2006, Norman E. Borlaug, Anthony Cunningham, Jane I. Guyer, Hans R. Herren, Calestous Juma, Akinlawon Mabogunje, Barbara Underwood, Montague Yudelman, chapter 1, in Lost Crops of Africa: Volume 2: Vegetables (U.S. National Research Council Consensus Study Report) (non-fiction), Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, →DOI, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, archived from the original on 02 Sep 2021, page xviii:]
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He's got a virus and had to stay home from school.
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Brazil, that inferno where every budding flower and every buzzing bluebottle fly bears a lascivious virus. [1890, Aluísio Azevedo, The Slum:]
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Wait a minute! Is this one of those virus emails?! [2004 November 15, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Strong Bad Email #118: virus”, in Homestar Runner, spoken by Strong Bad (Matthew Chapman):]
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I am tired of the mind viruses that are crippling people living in the western world — especially in my own nation. Sadly, Australia is becoming known as a nation of whingers. [2011, Pat Mesiti, The $1 Million Reason to Change Your Mind:]
Nouns inflected like virus
virus,
Etymology
1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *weys-
3. Proto-Indo-European *wisós
4. Proto-Italic *weizos
5. Latin vīrusbor.
6. Middle English virus
7. English virus
8. From Middle English virus, from Latin vīrus (“poison, slime, venom”), via rhotacism from Proto-Italic *weizos, from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“fluidity, slime, poison”). First use in the computer context by David Gerrold in his 1972 book When HARLIE Was One. See: Latin Nouns '
vīrus'.
Verbs referencing "virus"
Czech Nouns
vir, Dutch Nouns
virus.