contagious
capable of being transmitted by bodily contact with an infected person or object: contagious diseases.
carrying or spreading a contagious disease.
tending to spread from person to person: contagious laughter.
Origin of contagious
1synonym study For contagious
Other words from contagious
- con·ta·gious·ly, adverb
- con·ta·gious·ness, con·ta·gi·os·i·ty [kuhn-tey-jee-os-i-tee], /kənˌteɪ dʒiˈɒs ɪ ti/, noun
- an·ti·con·ta·gious, adjective
- an·ti·con·ta·gious·ly, adverb
- an·ti·con·ta·gious·ness, noun
- non·con·ta·gious, adjective
- non·con·ta·gious·ly, adverb
- non·con·ta·gious·ness, noun
- un·con·ta·gious, adjective
- un·con·ta·gious·ly, adverb
Words that may be confused with contagious
- contagious , infectious (see synonym study at the current entry)
Words Nearby contagious
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use contagious in a sentence
The novel coronavirus is highly contagious and, unlike influenza or rhinoviruses, SARS-CoV-2 is new.
COVID-19 may one day come and go like the flu, but we’re not there yet | Kate Baggaley | September 16, 2020 | Popular-ScienceWe are a global economy and people travel from different parts of the world, but that doesn’t necessarily mean international travelers are more or less contagious.
All Your Questions About Flying During the Pandemic Answered | Charli Penn | September 4, 2020 | Essence.comOne big unknown is whether the reinfected patient was contagious the second time around.
What the first confirmed COVID-19 reinfection tells us about a future vaccine | Naomi Xu Elegant | August 25, 2020 | FortuneFor example, it’s still unclear why the new virus is so much more contagious than its SARS and MERS relatives — each of which have infected fewer than 10,000 people.
Here’s what we’ve learned in six months of COVID-19 — and what we still don’t know | Erin Garcia de Jesus | June 30, 2020 | Science NewsPatients are most contagious around the time their symptoms emerge, so this woman was most likely the index case — the first person in the cluster to become infected.
COVID-19 case clusters offer lessons and warnings for reopening | Helen Thompson | June 18, 2020 | Science News
Many doomsday preppers have spent their lives stocking up for an emergency of the type this contagious hemorrhagic fever presents.
Apocalypse Now: Preppers Are Gearing Up for Ebola | Nina Strochlic | October 17, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIt is likely, therefore, that Duncan was much more contagious further into his illness, making transmission increasingly likely.
Can You Treat Ebola—And Stay Safe? | Abby Haglage, Kent Sepkowitz | October 12, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBy then, dripping with fevered sweat, she would have been inarguably contagious.
First: Was he contagious when boarding the plane and are his plane-mates therefore at risk?
While the virus can remain incubated for up to 21 days, it is not contagious until a patient begins showing symptoms.
CDC Director: First U.S. Ebola Patient ‘Critically Ill’ | Abby Haglage | September 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTA suppressed laugh spread its contagious influence all round the table.
Now, youve been skating with Mother Wit and have caught her inventive geniusits contagious.
The Girls of Central High on the Stage | Gertrude W. MorrisonDr. Coleridge "considered it to be a contagious nervous disease, the acme or intensest form of which is catalepsy."
Second Edition of A Discovery Concerning Ghosts | George CruikshankFor such intensity of evocation is as contagious as an enthusiasm or a panic.
Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A -- Z | Anatole Cerfberr and Jules Franois ChristophePliny says the temples were almost deserted through this contagious superstition.
The Catacombs of Rome | William Henry Withrow
British Dictionary definitions for contagious
/ (kənˈteɪdʒəs) /
(of a disease) capable of being passed on by direct contact with a diseased individual or by handling clothing, etc, contaminated with the causative agent: Compare infectious
(of an organism) harbouring or spreading the causative agent of a transmissible disease
causing or likely to cause the same reaction or emotion in several people; catching; infectious: her laughter was contagious
Derived forms of contagious
- contagiously, adverb
- contagiousness, noun
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 contagious
[ kən-tā′jəs ]
Capable of being transmitted by direct or indirect contact, as an infectious disease.
Bearing contagion, as a person or animal with an infectious disease that is contagious.
usage For contagious
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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