virology Ultramicroscopic infectious agent that replicates itself only within cells of living hosts; many are pathogenic; a piece of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) wrapped in a thin coat of protein.

Roget 655: disease; illness, sickness etc. adj.; ailing &c.; all the ills that flesh is heir to" [Hamlet]; morbidity, morbosity^†; infirmity, ailment, indisposition; complaint, disorder, malady; distemper, distemperature^†.    visitation, attack, seizure, stroke, fit.    delicacy, loss of health, invalidation, cachexy^†; cachexia [Med.], atrophy, marasmus^†; indigestion, dyspepsia; decay etc. (deterioration) 659; decline, consumption, palsy, paralysis, prostration.    taint, pollution, infection, sepsis, septicity^†, infestation; epidemic, pandemic, endemic, epizootic; murrain, plague, pestilence, pox.    sore, ulcer, abscess, fester, boil; pimple, wen etc. (swelling) 250; carbuncle, gathering, imposthume^†, peccant humor, issue; rot, canker, cold sore, fever sore; cancer, carcinoma, leukemia, neoplastic disease, malignancy, tumor; caries, mortification, corruption, gangrene, sphacelus^†, sphacelation^†, leprosy; eruption, rash, breaking out.    fever, temperature, calenture^†; inflammation.    ague, angina pectoris [Lat.], appendicitis; Asiatic cholera^†, spasmodic cholera; biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague; blennorrhagia^†, blennorrhoea^†; blood poisoning, bloodstroke^†, bloody flux, brash; breakbone fever^†, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever; heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy [Med.]; hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis; bronchocele [Med.], canker rash, cardialgia [Med.], carditis [Med.], endocarditis [Med.]; cholera, asphyxia; chlorosis, chorea, cynanche^†, dartre [Fr.]; enanthem^†, enanthema^†; erysipelas; exanthem^†, exanthema; gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness; grip, grippe, influenza, flu; hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw; measles, mumps^†, polio; necrosis, pertussis, phthisis^†, pneumonia, psora^†, pyaemia^†, pyrosis [Med.], quinsy, rachitis^†, ringworm, rubeola, St.    Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma^†, syntexis^†, tetanus, tetter^†, tonsillitis, tonsilitis^†, tracheocele [Med.], trachoma, trismus [Med.], varicella [Med.], varicosis [Med.], variola [Med.], water qualm, whooping cough; yellow fever, yellow jack.    fatal disease etc. (hopeless) 859; dangerous illness, galloping consumption, churchyard cough; general breaking up, break up of the system.    [Disease of mind] idiocy etc. 499; insanity etc. 503.    martyr to disease; cripple; the halt the lame and the blind;" valetudinary^†, valetudinarian; invalid, patient, case; sickroom, sick-chamber.    [Science of disease] pathology, etiology, nosology^†.    [Veterinary] anthrax, bighead; blackleg, blackquarter^†; cattle plague, glanders^†, mange, scrapie, milk sickness; heartworm, feline leukemia, roundworms; quarter-evil, quarter-ill; rinderpest.    [disease-causing agents] virus, bacterium, bacteria.    [types of viruses] DNA virus; RNA virus.    [RNA viruses] rhinovirus; rhabdovirus; picornavirus.    [DNA viruses] herpesvirus; cytomegalovirus, CMV; human immunodefficiency virus, HIV.    ... show more

Dutch: computervirus, smetstof, virus
Polish: wirus

A harmful or corrupting agency.

A software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer:
— A true virus cannot spread to another computer without human assistance.

synonym: computer virus.

Dutch: computervirus
Polish: wirus