CONTAGION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does contagion mean? 

• CONTAGION (noun)
  The noun CONTAGION has 3 senses:

1. any disease easily transmitted by contact

2. an incident in which an infectious disease is transmitted

3. the communication of an attitude or emotional state among a number of people

  Familiarity information: CONTAGION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONTAGION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any disease easily transmitted by contact

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

contagion; contagious disease

Hypernyms ("contagion" is a kind of...):

communicable disease (a disease that can be communicated from one person to another)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "contagion"):

flu; grippe; influenza (an acute febrile highly contagious viral disease)

measles; morbilli; rubeola (an acute and highly contagious viral disease marked by distinct red spots followed by a rash; occurs primarily in children)

diphtheria (acute contagious infection caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae; marked by the formation of a false membrane in the throat and other air passages causing difficulty in breathing)

scarlatina; scarlet fever (an acute communicable disease (usually in children) characterized by fever and a red rash)

pox (a contagious disease characterized by purulent skin eruptions that may leave pock marks)

trench mouth; Vincent's angina; Vincent's infection (an acute communicable infection of the respiratory tract and mouth marked by ulceration of the mucous membrane)

Cupid's disease; Cupid's itch; dose; sexually transmitted disease; social disease; STD; VD; venereal disease; venereal infection; Venus's curse (a communicable infection transmitted by sexual intercourse or genital contact)

Derivation:

contagious ((of disease) capable of being transmitted by infection)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An incident in which an infectious disease is transmitted

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

contagion; infection; transmission

Hypernyms ("contagion" is a kind of...):

incident (a single distinct event)

Derivation:

contagious ((of disease) capable of being transmitted by infection)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The communication of an attitude or emotional state among a number of people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

contagion; infection

Context example:

the infection of his enthusiasm for poetry

Hypernyms ("contagion" is a kind of...):

communication (something that is communicated by or to or between people or groups)

Derivation:

contagious (easily diffused or spread as from one person to another)

 Context examples 

From cabin to forecastle it seems to have broken out like a contagion.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Nor could the heroism and the folly be kept apart, for there were few who could quite escape the contagion of the times.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had caught the contagion of the excitement, and he felt that in some way he must do a great thing for John Thornton.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

“The fact is, my dear,” I began, “there is contagion in us. We infect everyone about us.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The teachers were fully occupied with packing up and making other necessary preparations for the departure of those girls who were fortunate enough to have friends and relations able and willing to remove them from the seat of contagion.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

My dearest Henry, the advantage to you of getting away from the Admiral before your manners are hurt by the contagion of his, before you have contracted any of his foolish opinions, or learned to sit over your dinner as if it were the best blessing of life!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Because of all this he became possessed of a great pride in himself, which communicated itself like a contagion to his physical being.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Johansen, who had caught the contagion of Wolf Larsen’s masterfulness, burst out with a volley of abuse and curses.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

All his bluster had gone, and he seemed to have caught the contagion of preternatural calm.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)