Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Extremely infectious, malignant, or poisonous. Used of a disease or toxin.
- adj. Capable of causing disease by breaking down protective mechanisms of the host. Used of a pathogen.
- adj. Bitterly hostile or antagonistic; hateful: virulent criticism. See Synonyms at poisonous.
- adj. Intensely irritating, obnoxious, or harsh.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Full of virus; extremely poisonous or venomous.
- Due to the action of a virus: as, a virulent inoculation.
- Very bitter or spiteful; malignant: as, a virulent invective; a virulent libel.
Wiktionary
- adj. highly infectious, malignant, or deadly.
- adj. Hostile to the point of being venomous; intensely acrimonious.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Extremely poisonous or venomous; very active in doing injury.
- adj. Very bitter in enmity; actuated by a desire to injure; malignant.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. harsh or corrosive in tone
- adj. extremely poisonous or injurious; producing venom
- adj. infectious; having the ability to cause disease
Etymologies
- From Latin virus ("poison, slime, venom"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Latin vīrulentus, from vīrus, poison. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The term virulent, you see, is used to mean something virus-like, especially in the manner and speed it spreads itself.”
“The Culture of Critique, and we continue to see it when the word "virulent" - meaning”
“The gravest manifestation of the power of violence to remain alive and virulent occurs when the violated become abusers.”
“However, three types are what could be described as virulent: wild garlic, bamboo and Japanese knotweed.”
The Wall Street Journal: Monster Species Face Off In a Victorian Garden
“LEAVITT: We'll have a pandemic if a highly-efficient and virulent, that is to say very powerful virus, begins to pass from person to person.”
“The earliest meaning of the adjective virulent from the Latin virus, “poison” was the nature of an infection “marked by a rapid, malignant course.””
“Suddenly, every corner of my skin felt as if it was inflamed by what could only be described as a virulent itch – which no amount of scratching could relieve.”
“The strain is being called virulent, sophisticated, and we had expert on this morning saying basically, you know, that rules out the garden-variety wacko who would try to make this is his kitchen or his bathroom.”
“In the fourth month, in February of 1871, that is, the virulent leprosy that abided in Kinau broke loose, and within the space of a few weeks she became a horribly riddled thing, a walking corpse with thick, bloated face, shivering lips about to fall away and sickening illness in her breasts.”
“From afar, the notion of virulent polarization over the prospect of reforming a health-care system has baffled the”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘virulent’.
-
Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
-
1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
In provocation
When exasperated, vexed or distressed.
bunkum, pananxiety, hokum, odor of sanctity, facade of strength, bumpkin, sardonic, Philistine, Vandal, dilettante, acerbic, acrid and 11 more...
-
man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
-
GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
Awesome biological adjectives
vespine, virulent, viviparous, vulpine, vulturine, xeromorphic, ursine, ungulate, terricolous, sylvan, setaceous, sciurine and 14 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1908 more...
-
MyList
peter out, fraying, jump on the bandw..., indignation, eclectic, hung up, salutary, hoary, warped, glaring, blue-collar, concomitant and 105 more...
-
Hit Parade GRE
Princeton Review words
abscond, aberrant, alacrity, anomaly, approbation, arduous, assuage, audacious, austere, axiomatic, canonical, capricious and 287 more...
-
GRE Reference
A list of words unfamiliar to me that I have repeatedly encountered in GRE question sets.
parochial, clique, salacious, aegis, ostracize, conceited, sacrilegious, inane, serendipity, gourmand, polemic, tenuous and 138 more...
-
1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 288 more...
-
SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
-
Bitterness
acrid, impudent, piquant, virulent, vitriolic, failure pile in a...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for virulent.
Wee "Time had been wanton, virulent and spiteful." Money. Amis, Martin. Sep 11, 2011
seanahan That's an excellent metaphoric use of virulent. Jan 4, 2008
brtom "By cunning, cautious; or by nature, cold, 15
In maiden madness, virulently bold!"
Sheridan, School for Scandal Jan 2, 2008