pathogenic.

Able to cause disease in a susceptible host.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• pathogenic organism
• pathogenic strain

On the page

The sample contained a pathogenic strain of bacteria.

They distinguished the harmless organisms from the pathogenic ones.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror. Forms: Normally non-gradable as a classification; more pathogenic compares disease-causing capacity. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.