VIRULENCE

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extreme hostility

Example:

the virulence of the malicious old man

Synonyms:

virulence; virulency

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("virulence" is a kind of...):

hostility; ill will (a hostile (very unfriendly) disposition)

Derivation:

virulent (harsh or corrosive in tone)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Extreme harmfulness (as the capacity of a microorganism to cause disease)

Example:

the virulence of the plague

Synonyms:

virulence; virulency

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("virulence" is a kind of...):

harmfulness; injuriousness (destructiveness that causes harm or injury)

Domain category:

micro-organism; microorganism (any organism of microscopic size)

Derivation:

virulent (infectious; having the ability to cause disease)

virulent (extremely poisonous or injurious; producing venom)

Credits

Context examples:

When the typhus fever had fulfilled its mission of devastation at Lowood, it gradually disappeared from thence; but not till its virulence and the number of its victims had drawn public attention on the school.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A lyophilized preparation of a low-virulence strain (SU) of Streptococcus pyogenes (S. hemolyticus), inactivated by heating with penicillin G. It has been proposed as a noncytotoxic antineoplastic agent because of its immune system-stimulating activity.

(Picibanil, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

And the lock of hair—that too I had always carried about me in the same pocket-book, which was now searched by Madam with the most ingratiating virulence,—the dear lock—all, every memento was torn from me.