virulence

UK/ˈvɪɹjələns/US/ˈvɪɹjələns/

nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechmostly written

Virulence is the power of a disease to harm, or bitterness of feeling. Assess the virulence.

In medicine it is measured and in argument it is only felt, and the same word covers both. A very high virulence often limits how far a disease spreads, since it stops people moving about.

Definitions of virulence

1nounvirulenceThe power of a disease to harm, or bitterness of feeling.C1
“The virulence of the response shut the discussion down.”

virulence is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin virulentia, from virus, which meant a poison or slime long before it meant anything microbial.

Latin
virulentia
Middle French
virulence
English, today
virulence

From Middle French virulence, from Latin virulentia.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

virulence in the wild

Pathogenic strains often promote infections by producing virulence factors such as potent protein toxins, and the expression of a cell-surface protein that binds and inactivates antibodies.
Staphylococcus aureus
In most cases, especially in animal systems, virulence refers to the degree of damage caused by a microbe to its host.
Virulence
In the specific context of gene for gene systems, often in plants, virulence refers to a pathogen's ability to infect a resistant host.
Virulence
The virulence and invasiveness of various strains of S. pneumoniae vary according to their serotypes, determined by their chemical composition and the quantity of CPS they produce.
Streptococcus pneumoniae
Infectivity has been shown to positively correlate with virulence, in plants.
Infectivity

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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.

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