communicable

[ kuh-myoo-ni-kuh-buhl ]
See synonyms for: communicablecommunicability on Thesaurus.com

adjective
  1. capable of being easily communicated or transmitted: communicable information; a communicable disease.

  2. talkative; communicative.

Origin of communicable

1
1350–1400; Middle English <Late Latin commūnicābilis, equivalent to commūnicā(re) (see communicate) + -bilis-ble

Other words from communicable

  • com·mu·ni·ca·bil·i·ty, com·mu·ni·ca·ble·ness, noun
  • com·mu·ni·ca·bly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use communicable in a sentence

  • The presence of false membranes in one form of mammitis in cows does not necessarily imply its communicability to man.

    Special Report on Diseases of Cattle | U.S. Department of Agriculture

British Dictionary definitions for communicable

communicable

/ (kəˈmjuːnɪkəbəl) /


adjective
  1. capable of being communicated

  2. (of a disease or its causative agent) capable of being passed on readily

Derived forms of communicable

  • communicability or communicableness, noun
  • communicably, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for communicable

communicable

[ kə-myōōnĭ-kə-bəl ]


  1. Capable of being transmitted from a person or animal to another person or animal, either through direct or indirect transmission, including insect or other vectors. Chickenpox is a communicable disease.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.