Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An inanimate object or substance that is capable of transmitting infectious organisms from one individual to another.
Wiktionary
- n. medicine, epidemiology An inanimate object capable of carrying infectious agents (such as bacteria, viruses and parasites), and thus passively enabling their transmission between hosts.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any inanimate object (as a towel or money or clothing or dishes or books or toys etc.) that can transmit infectious agents from one person to another
Etymologies
- Backformation from plural, Latin fomites. (Wiktionary)
- Back-formation from New Latin fōmitēs, pl. of Latin fōmes, tinder, from fovēre, to warm. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Furthermore, I found it hard to believe that Dr. Erin Mears Kate Winslet has to define the word fomite for senior staffers at the Minnesota Department of Health.”
“And when I say "satisfying," I mean I squealed with delight every time I heard a Microbiology 1650 buzzword: fomite, paramyxovirus, live attenuated vaccine, encephalitis, and pleiomorphic, just to name a few.”
The Huffington Post: Priya Malhotra: The Facts and Fiction of On-Screen Medicine
“Remember, your PJs can be a fomite an inanimate object that will transmit disease.”
The Huffington Post: Margie Goldsmith: When Traveling, B Is for "Bedbug," not "Baggage"
“Direct zoonoses are transmitted from an infected vertebrate host to another host by direct contact, fomite or mechanical vector.”
“Harvath was beginning to wonder if some sort of fomite was responsible for infecting the non-Muslim population of Asalaam.”
“Aa intercept� qu� et syluis et cespitibus consueto gentis ad focos alendos fomite fer� destituuntur.”
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation
“Aa interceptæ; quæ et syluis et cespitibus consueto gentis ad focos alendos fomite ferè destituuntur.”
“Somebody comes and touches that fomite and there's a transmission.”
“Iraq ruining a fomite that gone preparing to flying a wounded Reuters journalist to the hospital.”
WN.com - Articles related to Tobacco Funds Shrink as Obesity Fight Intensifies
“Wikileaks on Monday presents US troops in Iraq ruining a fomite that gone preparing to flying”
WN.com - Articles related to Tobacco Funds Shrink as Obesity Fight Intensifies
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fomite’.
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Substancestry
Mysterious and theoretical substances and "stuff" of legend. More emphasis on the ancient, mystical, mythical, folklore, mathematical, and scientific. I won't be listing too many "sci-fi" or comed...
ylem, ichor, aether, ectoplasm, impossible object, quark star, eucharist, pixie dust, eitr, elixir of life, philosopher's stone, alkahest and 126 more...
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
taramea, tawings, tchicks, timider, tirades, tirings, towings, trailed, trailer, trained, trainee, trainer and 2373 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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I didn't know there was a word for that!
interdigitate, aspheric, benthos, reptation, pastiche, pandiculate, agelast, obdormition, dysania, armscye, phosphene, etiolation and 62 more...
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There's a word for it
catkin, pastiche, badonkadonk, biome, omphaloscopy, pogonophobia, reptation, anathema, xyst, commodify, commoditize, monetize and 69 more...
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February 2011
mirepoix, rubylith, torogoz, cecum, icterus, leptospirosis, antigenic, syncytium, electrophoresis, perivascular, glial, parenchyma and 9 more...
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Homeland Security
Words associated with homeland security
resilience, terrorism, preparedness, catastrophe, fear, radicalization, intelligence, security theater, bogeyman, Weapons of mass d..., Critical infrastr..., Emergence and 45 more...
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Specificity
Words that have with subtly different meanings from other words.
vestibule, commoditize, commodify, monetize, corroborate, mezzanine, apposite, irony, calefacient, maxim, pandiculate, rarefaction and 40 more...
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Words of the day
The list of Wordnik words of the day.
panurgic, chapfallen, billingsgate, latration, witticaster, slitheroo, rux, crotchet, mirliton, arenose, ruelle, jane-of-apes and 76 more...
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Baby Got Back-Formations
"A new word created by removing an affix from an already existing word, as vacuum clean from vacuum cleaner, or by removing what is mistakenly thought to be an affix, as pea from the earlier Englis...
resurrect, enthuse, couth, donate, emote, greed, isolate, manipulate, orate, prequel, spectate, upholster and 94 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Wordnik Notebooks
All the words from the cover of the Wordnik notebook.
A few words appear twice: frass, cruet, luna, thalweg, and possibly some more.
Careful: Contains spoilers!spilth, frass, fomite, rux, worricow, alizarin, mundungus, parthenocarpy, jib, whinyard, weisure, nimiety and 217 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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The word collector
My collection of words that are intriguing, but don't fit my other lists.
snailery, aplasia, postulant, aigrette, caravel, frigate, capeskin, suffusion, schist, varlet, sepulchral, anisotropy and 317 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3251 more...
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Yosemite Samite
adamite, annamite, benjamite, ephraimite, grahamite, hieronymite, willemite, thomite, citrus red mite, cheese mite, dust mite, follicle mite and 21 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fomite.
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