MEANING
1. Capable of causing especially severe disease or damage.
2. Intensely hostile or bitter in expression.
Use it for
A pathogen's destructive power; unexpectedly severe illness; vicious verbal hostilityDistinguish severity from contagiousness when the threat is biological.
Words that belong together
- virulent strain
- virulent infection
- virulent attack
On the page
The laboratory isolated a more virulent strain.
A virulent infection spread through the damaged tissue.
His denial turned into a virulent attack on the witnesses.
Nearby words
Opposite meanings
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- virulent
Usage notes
Primary category: horror. Describes degree of harmfulness, not merely ease of transmission. Figuratively, it can mean intensely hostile or poisonous in expression. Adjective; comparison: more virulent, most virulent. Derived/related family (not inflections): virulence (noun).
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