venomous

UK/ˈvɛnəməs/US/ˈvɛnəməs/

adjectiveC2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,477 of 15,258leans written

Venomous means carrying poison, or full of spite. A venomous snake, a venomous remark, venomous spiders.

In biology the distinction is strict: a venomous animal injects, a poisonous one harms when eaten or touched. So a snake is venomous and a toad is poisonous, and getting it the wrong way round is one of the standard corrections.

Definitions of venomous

1adjectivevenomousCarrying poison, or full of spite.C2
“Be careful where you walk, because some of the snakes here are venomous.”

venomous is a quality.

Remember it

VENomous → straight into the VEIN

The bite puts it straight into the vein, and the arm goes numb.

hooks ontovein numb

Where it comes from

Old French venimos comes from Latin venenum, a poison or potion, originally a love potion.

Proto-Indo-European
*wenh₁-
Old French
venimos
Anglo-Norman
venimous
Middle English
venymous
English, today
venomous

From Middle English venymous, from Old French venimos, composed of venim + -os. Synchronically analysable as venom + -ous. Compare Modern French venimeux. venenous.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

Practise this word

venomous in the wild

Cobra is the common name of various venomous snakes, most of which belong to the genus Naja.
Cobra
Most elapids are venomous, with the exception of the genus Emydocephalus.
Elapidae
A snakebite is an injury caused by the bite of a snake, especially a venomous snake.
Snakebite
A common sign of a bite from a venomous snake is the presence of two puncture wounds from the animal's fangs.
Snakebite
Like many shrews, the water shrew has venomous saliva, making it one of the few venomous mammals.
Eurasian water shrew

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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.

Related words

venom

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