viral
/ˈvaɪɹəl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.08 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of or relating to a biological virus.
adj
Spread by word of mouth with minimal intervention, in order to create buzz and interest.
adj
Circulated rapidly and widely from one user to another.
Example Sentences
- "viral DNA"
- "viral infection"
- "“Efficient way to disseminate information? I don't think.” “But it is,” Cayce insists. “The model's viral. ‘Deep niche.’ The venues would be carefully selected—”"
- "Still, the movie [Ralph Breaks the Internet] manages to locate some gentle satire in our culture's love-hate relationship with the internet. At one point, Ralph must attain a certain level of viral popularity, assisted by the BuzzFeed-esque content guru Yesss (Taraji P. Henson), and the movie is savvy about how accidental spikes in fame can turn into cynical algorithm manipulation."
- "With some minutes to kill, he checks the headlines on his phone. Yet again, something dreadful and new which he doesn't understand is going viral. Today's fad is, you paint a black vertical rectangle on the wall, or on a mirror, or over the top of a picture. And then you chant something."
- "The end game of that is the GoFundMe link posted beneath a viral tweet so they can pay for their health care. Being an influencer sounds fun until it’s ‘keep producing viral content to literally stay alive.’"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weys- Proto-Indo-European *wisós Proto-Italic *weizos Latin vīrusbor. Middle English virus English virus English -al English viral From virus + -al.