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vaccine

US/vækˈsin/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,110 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: vaccines

A vaccine is a preparation that teaches your body to fight an illness before you catch it. A flu vaccine, get vaccinated, the vaccine rollout.

It works by showing the immune system something harmless that resembles the disease, so that the real thing is recognised at once. Herd immunity is the point at which enough people are protected that the disease cannot spread. Note vaccinate and vaccination; immunisation, which is the broader term; and booster, meaning a later dose that renews the protection.

Photo Credit: James Gathany Content Providers(s): CDC · Public domain

Definitions of vaccine

  1. 1nounvaccineA preparation that teaches the body to fight an illness in advance.B2

    “The vaccine was developed in about eleven months.”

    synonyms: vaccination, jab

vaccine is a medical preparation.

Also accepted in games: vaccination

Where it comes from

Latin vaccinus means of a cow. Edward Jenner found that cowpox protected against smallpox, and named the method after the cow — so every vaccine in the world is named after a disease of cattle.

  1. Latin

    vaccīnus — of or derived from a cow

  2. English, today

    vaccine

Built from

  • vacca · Latin — cow (female cattle)

Latin vaccīnus (“of or derived from a cow”), from vacca (“cow (female cattle)”) + -īnus. Sense 1 refers to the early use of the cowpox virus as a vaccination against smallpox: see New Latin variolae vaccīnae (“cowpox”) literally “infectious diseases of cattle causing pustules”, coined by the British physician and scientist Edward Jenner (1749–1823).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Body & Health, Science & Space, Pets & Pet Care

Practise this word

vaccine in the wild

  • The disease can be prevented by the polio vaccine, with multiple doses required for lifelong protection.

    Polio

  • The MMR vaccine is widely used around the world.

    MMR vaccine

  • The vaccine is safe to give at the same time as other vaccines.

    MMR vaccine

  • Both types of vaccine are generally safe to give during pregnancy and in those who have HIV/AIDS, but are otherwise well.

    Polio vaccine

  • The vaccine was not approved for use in the United States, but was used successfully elsewhere.

    Polio vaccine

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.