Synonyms for infectious
- adjective
Most common
All synonyms
Adjective
1. Contagious
contagious, infective, communicable, transmissible, epidemic, catching informal, pestilential, pestiferous, taking dated
Other
Definitions
- adj. 1
Caused by an agent that enters the host's body (such as a bacterium, virus, parasite, or prion); often, also, transmitted among hosts via any of various routes (for example, contact, droplet-borne, airborne, waterborne, foodborne, fomite-borne, or bloodborne).
Cancer is usually not infectious.
Related words
Example sentences
- contagious I thought that you said that it wasn't contagious.
- communicable Gender dysphoria isn't communicable.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| infectious | rising | |
| contagious | rising | |
| communicable | falling | |
| transmissible | steady | |
| infective | falling | |
| zymotic | falling |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 6 letters
- taking2
- 7 letters
- zymotic
- 8 letters
- catching2, epidemic4
- 9 letters
- infective3
- 10 letters
- contagious3
- 11 letters
- pestiferous
- 12 letters
- communicable5, pestilential
- 13 letters
- transmissible
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (taking2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- infectieux
- Deutsch
- infektiös
- Català
- infecciós