Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A complete viral particle, consisting of RNA or DNA surrounded by a protein shell and constituting the infective form of a virus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun virology A single individual particle of a virus (the viral equivalent of a cell).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (virology) a complete viral particle; nucleic acid and capsid (and a lipid envelope in some viruses)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[vir(us) + –on.]

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Examples

  • However, Wollman understood that the bacteriophage particle, the virion, is not the direct descendant of the infecting particle.

    André Lwoff - Nobel Lecture 1972

  • Before a virus has entered a host cell, it is called a virion -- a package of viral genetic material.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • Briefly, when a piece of a virus, called a virion, comes in contact with a cell it likes, it may attach to special landing sites on the surface of that cell.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • The killer: a colourised transmission electron micrograph of an Ebola virus virion.

    Ebola: the solution may be in sight 2011

  • They had focused in on a virion at sixty thousand times magnification.

    Invasion Cook, Robin, 1940- 2000

  • Still others are structural proteins of the virion.

    André Lwoff - Nobel Lecture 1972

  • A look inside a single measles virus particle, or virion, made with an electron microscope.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • We actually created an 'electronic pet' in the computer, which we can experiment with under many different environments and conditions with a variety of drugs, and we can know every detail of the change in the virion, says Dr. Wei Ge, a professor of chemical engineering at CAS-IPE and a principal in the H1N1 modeling effort, told PopSci via email.

    Gizmodo Kristen Philipkoski 2011

  • Cynthia S. Goldsmith; William Bellini A look inside a single measles virus particle, or virion, made with an electron microscope.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • The M13 virion consists of a single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) genome surrounded by a protein coating in the form of a long filament.

    PLoS ONE Alerts: New Articles Marianne De Paepe et al. 2010

Comments

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  • particle/body of a virus

    August 13, 2007