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virus

Pronunciation: /ˈvaɪ.ɹəs/

The English word “virus” has 10 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A submicroscopic, non-cellular structure that consists of a core of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protein coat, that requires a living host cell to replicate, and that sometimes causes disease in the host organism (such agents are often classed as nonliving infectious particles and less often as microorganisms).
  2. A species thereof.
  3. An individual particle thereof: synonym of virion.
  4. A quantity of such infectious agents, considered en masse.
  5. A disease caused by such an infectious agent; a viral illness.
  6. Venom, as produced by a poisonous animal etc.
  7. A type of malware which can covertly transmit itself between computers via networks (especially the Internet) or removable storage such as disks by inserting its code into other executable files, often causing damage to systems and data; also computer virus.
  8. Any type of malware.
  9. Any malicious or dangerous entity that spreads from one place or person to another.

verb

  1. To send or infect an electronic device with a computer virus.

Etymology

From Middle English virus, from Latin vīrus (“poison, slime, venom”), via rhotacism from Proto-Italic *weizos, from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“fluidity, slime, poison”). First use in the computer context by David Gerrold in his 1972 book When HARLIE Was One.

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