infection

English

Etymology

From Old French infection, from Late Latin īnfectiō.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɪnˈfɛkʃən/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛkʃən
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Noun

infection (countable and uncountable, plural infections)

  1. (pathology) The act or process of infecting.
    Coordinate term: colonization (subclinical or commensal)
  2. An uncontrolled growth of harmful microorganisms in a host.
    Coordinate term: colonization (subclinical or commensal)
    • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎[1], volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):
      An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic […] real kidneys […] . But they are nothing like as efficient, and can cause bleeding, clotting and infection—not to mention inconvenience for patients, who typically need to be hooked up to one three times a week for hours at a time.
  3. A disease caused by such presence of a pathogen.
    Coordinate term: colonization (subclinical or commensal)
    • 1944, Cedric C. Carpenter, “Failure of penicillin to prevent syphilis”, in United States Naval Medical Bulletin‎[2], volume 43, number 2, pages 389–390:
      As the previously used chemotherapeutic agents have only proved themselves to be spirochetostatic and not spirochetocidal, the patient is liable to a delayed infection which may not become manifest for years.
    • 1988 January 22, Robert McClory, “The Yeast of Our Problems”, in Chicago Reader‎[3]:
      And researchers at the National Institutes of Health report finding candidalike fungus infections in the blood of AIDS victims.
    • 2015 August 29, “Different Blood Cell-Derived Transcriptome Signatures in Cows Exposed to Vaccination Pre- or Postpartum”, in PLOS ONE‎[4], →DOI:
      It has been reported that periparturient cows undergo a period of immunosuppression of various immunological parameters associated with a high susceptibility to uterine and mammary infections […]
  4. A visible sign of such a disease, such as the suppuration of a wound.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

  • exfection

French

Etymology

From Old French infection, from Late Latin īnfectiōnem.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛ̃.fɛk.sjɔ̃/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

infection f (plural infections)

  1. (pathology) infection
  2. (informal) stench, stink
    Synonyms: puanteur, pestilence

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Turkish: enfeksiyon

Further reading

Interlingua

Noun

infection (plural infectiones)

  1. (pathology) The act or process of infecting.

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin īnfectiō.

Noun

infection oblique singular, f (oblique plural infections, nominative singular infection, nominative plural infections)

  1. (countable) infection.
    • 1377, Bernard de Gordon, Fleur de lis de medecine (a.k.a. lilium medicine), page 172 of this essay:
      la infection va tantost par tout le corps
      the infection travels around the whole body
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