virulence

/'viruləns/ Cách viết khác : (virulency) /'virulənsi/

Thân thiện

The scientist measured the virulence of the bacterial culture.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • Extreme hostility or bitterness: The quality of being intensely antagonistic, hateful, or spiteful in feeling or action.
   • Extreme harmfulness, especially the capacity of a microorganism to cause severe disease: In medicine and biology, this refers to the degree of pathogenicity of a germ, virus, or other agent; its ability to infect and damage a host.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Hostility):
  • The political debate was marked by surprising virulence.
  • She responded to the criticism with unexpected virulence.
• Noun (Harmfulness/Disease):
  • Scientists are studying the virulence of the new virus strain.
  • The virulence of the infection led to a rapid decline in the patient's health.

Advanced Usage

• "attenuation of virulence": A scientific term for the reduction in a pathogen's disease-causing capacity.
  • The vaccine was developed through the attenuation of the virus's virulence.
• Used in figurative contexts to describe the intense, harmful nature of non-biological things.
  • The virulence of the online harassment campaign was shocking.

Variants and Related Words

• Virulent (adj): (1) Extremely severe or harmful in its effects. (2) Bitterly hostile.
  • a virulent strain of bacteria
  • a virulent critic
• Virulency (n): An older, less common synonym for virulence.

Synonyms

• Hostility: Antagonism, bitterness, malice, spite.
• Harmfulness: Pathogenicity, toxicity, deadliness, lethality.

Related Phrases

• Degree of virulence: A phrase used in epidemiology to quantify how harmful a pathogen is.
  • The degree of virulence varies significantly between different bacterial species.
• Virulence factor: A specific molecule (like a toxin) produced by a pathogen that contributes to its ability to cause disease.
  • The toxin is a key virulence factor for that bacterium.

Related Idioms

• While not a standalone idiom, "virulent" often appears in phrases describing intense attacks.
  • He launched a virulent attack on his opponents' policies. (This uses the adjective form to convey extreme hostility.)

Học thuật

Noun

1. extreme hostility
   • the virulence of the malicious old man
2. extreme harmfulness (as the capacity of a microorganism to cause disease)
   • the virulence of the plague

Từ đồng nghĩa

• virulency