infect
/ɪnˈfɛkt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.36 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To bring (the body or part of it) into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen), so that the pathogen begins to act on the body; (of a pathogen) to come into contact with (a body or body part) and begin to act on it.
Transitive verb
verb
To make somebody enthusiastic about one's own passion, or to communicate a feeling to others, or a feeling communicating itself to others.
Transitive verb
adj
Example Sentences
- "Not everyone will be infected when an epidemic strikes."
- "Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola."
- "Ms. Tang’s inevitable contact with people who are ill has started to worry her. It did not help when she learned that someone living in a building near her own, in Siu Sai Wan, had been infected by the virus."
- "Her passion for dancing has infected me."
- "Guido, by way of diverting the embarrassment which seemed to infect them all, began to unfasten the packet of letters."
- "And in the imitation of these twain, / Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns / With an imperial voice, many are infect."
Etymology
From Middle French infect, from Latin infectus, perfect passive participle of inficiō (“dye, taint”).
Word Breakdown
- Root: *dʰeh₁-