VIRULENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does virulent mean? 

• VIRULENT (adjective)
  The adjective VIRULENT has 3 senses:

1. extremely poisonous or injurious; producing venom

2. infectious; having the ability to cause disease

3. harsh or corrosive in tone

  Familiarity information: VIRULENT used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VIRULENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extremely poisonous or injurious; producing venom

Synonyms:

deadly; venomous; virulent

Context example:

a virulent insect bite

Similar:

toxic (of or relating to or caused by a toxin or poison)

Derivation:

virulence (extreme harmfulness (as the capacity of a microorganism to cause disease))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Infectious; having the ability to cause disease

Similar:

highly infective ((of a microorganism) extremely infective)

deadly ((of a disease) having a rapid course and violent effect)

Antonym:

avirulent (not virulent; unable to produce disease)

Derivation:

virulence; virulency (extreme harmfulness (as the capacity of a microorganism to cause disease))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Harsh or corrosive in tone

Synonyms:

acerb; acerbic; acid; acrid; bitter; blistering; caustic; sulfurous; sulphurous; virulent; vitriolic

Context example:

a vitriolic critique

Similar:

unpleasant (offensive or disagreeable; causing discomfort or unhappiness)

Derivation:

virulence; virulency (extreme hostility)

 Context examples 

In the production of an attenuated vaccine, the infectious agent is altered so that it becomes harmless or less virulent.

(Attenuated Bacteria Vaccine, NCI Thesaurus)

DENGUE HEMORRHAGIC FEVER is a more virulent form of dengue virus infection and a separate clinical entity.

(Dengue Fever, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Moreover, when tested with human cells in a laboratory setting, the antibodies protected the cells from becoming infected with several different virulent ebolaviruses.

(Antibodies from Ebola survivor protect mice and ferrets against related viruses, NIH)

Infectious agents, which while normally present but remaining benign under the control of the immune system, become virulent and pathogenic in immune-compromised hosts (i.e when they get the opportunity to become infectious).

(Agents of Opportunistic Infection, NCI Thesaurus)

It was consumption of the most virulent kind.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I can even tell you I received one letter in particular which was extremely virulent.

(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)

A lyophilized formulation containing cultures of a low-virulent strain of Streptococcus pyogenes, treated and killed with pencillin G, with potential sclerosing, immunostimulating and antineoplastic activity.

(Picibanil, NCI Thesaurus)

A distinct and virulent form of DENGUE characterized by thrombocytopenia and hemoconcentration (grades I and II) and distinguished by a positive tourniquet test.

(Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Virulent bacteriophage and type species of the genus T4-Like Phages, in the family MYOVIRIDAE.

(Bacteriophage T4, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

I was a precocious actress in her eyes; she sincerely looked on me as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and dangerous duplicity.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)