Virus ˈvaɪrəs Infected Disease Caused Computer Software Noun

• the flu/influenza virus
• patients known to have been infected with the virus
• the human immunodeficiency virus or hiv
• the hepatitis c virus

virus

1. a living thing, too small to be seen without a microscope, that causes disease in people, animals and plants
• SEE ALSO Ebola virus
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/ebola-virus
• the flu/influenza virus
• patients known to have been infected with the virus
• the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV
• the hepatitis C virus
• a highly infectious disease caused by a virus
• a virus infection
• The vaccination offers good protection against the virus.
• It is not clear how she contracted the virus.

Extra Examples

• An infected person can pass the virus to others.
• The virus attacks a variety of cells in the body.
2. a disease caused by a virus
• There's a virus going around the office.
• I must have caught a virus on holiday.
3. instructions that are hidden within a computer program and are designed to cause faults or destroy data
• a computer virus
• I think I've got a virus on my laptop.
• The virus in the software was programmed to corrupt the hard disk.
• software errors that can be exploited by virus writers

Extra Examples

• A teenage boy was arrested for being the creator of the BomBlast virus that caused severe disruption to the country's defence systems.
• Most viruses can only spread if you open an email attachment.
• My computer has caught some kind of virus, and it won't let me log on to the internet.
• The latest virus will attach itself to all the addresses in your email address book.
• Your virus definitions are not up to date.
• anti-virus software

Word Origin

• late Middle English (denoting the venom of a snake): from Latin, literally ‘slimy liquid, poison’. The earlier medical sense, superseded by the current use as a result of improved scientific understanding, was ‘a substance produced in the body as the result of disease, especially one capable of infecting others’.