infection

/in'fekʃn/

Thân thiện

A doctor examines a patient for signs of infection.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • (Medicine) The invasion and multiplication of harmful microorganisms in the body: This refers to the process where pathogens like bacteria, viruses, or fungi enter the body, multiply, and potentially cause disease.
   • A disease caused by such microorganisms: This refers to the illness or pathological state resulting from this invasion.
   • The communication or spread of a feeling, idea, or quality: This figurative meaning describes how an attitude, emotion, or influence can spread from one person or thing to others.
   • (Phonetics) The alteration of a speech sound due to a neighboring sound: A technical term for a sound change in language.
   • (Law) Illegality that contaminates property: A specialized legal term for a taint that makes a ship or cargo liable to seizure.

Usage and Examples

• Medical Context:
  • The wound was cleaned to prevent infection. (The wound was cleaned to stop harmful germs from entering and causing disease.)
  • She is recovering from a viral infection. (She is getting better from an illness caused by a virus.)
• Figurative Context (Spread of Influence):
  • His laughter caused an infection of joy throughout the room. (His laughter spread a feeling of joy to everyone present.)
  • The infection of fear spread rapidly through the crowd. (The feeling of fear was communicated quickly among the people in the crowd.)

Advanced Usage

• "to be a source of infection": to be a point from which a disease can spread.
  • The contaminated water was a source of infection for the entire village.
• "risk of infection": the likelihood of catching a disease.
  • Doctors wear gloves to reduce the risk of infection.

Variants and Related Words

• Infect (verb): To contaminate with a disease-causing organism or to affect with a feeling.
  • The virus can infect the lungs.
  • Her enthusiasm infected the whole team.
• Infectious (adjective):
  • (Of a disease) Capable of being spread.

    • Measles is a highly infectious disease.
  • (Of feelings or laughter) Likely to spread to others.

    • He has an infectious smile.
• Infective (adjective): Having the ability to cause infection.
  • The infective stage of the parasite.

Synonyms

• Contagion: The communication of disease or a spreading influence. (Often used interchangeably with in both medical and figurative contexts.)
• Disease / Illness: A disorder of structure or function, which can be caused by an infection.

Related Phrases

• Secondary infection: An infection that occurs during or after treatment for another infection.
  • The patient developed a secondary bacterial infection.
• Opportunistic infection: An infection caused by a pathogen that takes advantage of a weakened immune system.
  • People with HIV are susceptible to opportunistic infections.

Idioms

• Spread like an infection: To propagate very quickly and widely, similar to a disease.
  • The rumor spread through the office like an infection.

Học thuật

Noun

1. (international law) illegality that taints or contaminates a ship or cargo rendering it liable to seizure
2. moral corruption or contamination
   • ambitious men are led astray by an infection that is almost unavoidable
3. the communication of an attitude or emotional state among a number of people
   • a contagion of mirth
   • the infection of his enthusiasm for poetry
4. an incident in which an infectious disease is transmitted
5. (medicine) the invasion of the body by pathogenic microorganisms and their multiplication which can lead to tissue damage and disease
6. (phonetics) the alteration of a speech sound under the influence of a neighboring sound
7. the pathological state resulting from the invasion of the body by pathogenic microorganisms

Từ đồng nghĩa

• contagion
• transmission