virus

A tiny infectious thing that makes copies of itself inside living cells and can cause illness.

• A virus caused her illness.
• Some viruses spread through the air.
• The vaccine helps protect people against this virus.

Common phrases: flu virus, catch a virus, spread the virus

A harmful computer program that copies itself and can damage files or spread to other computers.

• My computer has a virus.
• Scan the file for viruses before opening it.
• The virus spread through infected email attachments.

Common phrases: computer virus, virus scan, remove a virus, virus infection

A particular kind of infectious agent, classified as a species.

• Researchers identified a new virus.
• This virus belongs to a different family.
• The two viruses have closely related genomes.

Common phrases: a new virus, virus species, classified virus