infect
pronunciation
How to pronounce infect in British English:
UK [ɪnˈfekt]
How to pronounce infect in American English:
US [ɪnˈfekt]
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- Verb:
- communicate a disease to
- contaminate with a disease or microorganism
- contaminate with ideas or an ideology
- affect in a contagious way
Word Origin
- infect
- infect: [14] Latin inficere originally meant ‘put in’ – it was a compound verb formed from the prefix in- and facere ‘put, do’ (source of English fact, fashion, etc). Its earliest specialized extension was ‘dip in’, which was applied specifically to the dipping of cloth into dye. From this it moved on to ‘stain’, and then it was a short step to ‘taint, spoil’. ‘Affect with disease’ was a post-Latin development. English acquired the word via the Latin past participial stem infect-.=> fact, factory, fashion, perfect
- infect (v.)
- late 14c., from Latin infectus, past participle of inficere "to spoil, stain," literally "to put in to, dip into," from in- "in" (see in- (2)) + facere "to make, do, perform" (see factitious). Related: Infected; infecting.
Synonym
Example
- 1. The new virus could infect all of these types of cells .
- 2. Not every flu virus can infect every animal .
- 3. More than 40 simian immunodeficiency viruses are known to infect african primates .
- 4. Then your once healthy cell bursts open , releasing new viruses to infect more cells .
- 5. It can infect mammals and birds , but scientists know little about its effects on its victims .