contagious

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: con=ta=gious

CIDE DICTIONARY

contagious, a. [L. contagiosus: cf. F. contagieux.].

•  Communicable by contact, by a virus, or by a bodily exhalation; catching; as, a contagious disease.  [1913 Webster]
•  Conveying or generating disease; pestilential; poisonous; as, contagious air.  [1913 Webster]
•  Spreading or communicable from one to another; exciting similar emotions or conduct in others.  [1913 Webster]

  "His genius rendered his courage more contagious."  [1913 Webster]

  "The spirit of imitation is contagious."

Syn. -- Contagious, Infectious.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

contagious, adj.
1 a (of a person) likely to transmit disease by contact. b (of a disease) transmitted in this way.
2 (of emotions, reactions, etc.) likely to affect others (contagious enthusiasm).

Idiom

contagious abortion brucellosis of cattle.

Derivative

contagiously adv. contagiousness n.

Etymology

ME f. LL contagiosus (as contagion)

THESAURUS

contagious

assignable, catching, communicable, conductive, consignable, conveyable, deadly, destructive, endemic, envenomed, epidemial, epidemic, epiphytotic, epizootic, expressable, impartable, infectious, infective, inoculable, interchangeable, mailable, malign, malignant, mephitic, metathetic, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, movable, noxious, pandemic, pestiferous, pestilential, poisonous, portable, portative, removable, sporadic, spreading, taking, toxic, toxicant, toxiferous, transferable, transfusable, transmissible, transmissive, transmittable, transportable, transportative, transposable, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous, virulent, zymotic

ROGET THESAURUS

contagious

Insalubrity

N insalubrity, unhealthiness, nonnaturals, plague spot, malaria, death in the pot, contagion, toxicity, insalubrious, unhealthy, unwholesome, noxious, noisome, morbific, morbiferous, mephitic, septic, azotic, deleterious, pestilent, pestiferous, pestilential, virulent, venomous, envenomed, poisonous, toxic, toxiferous, teratogenic, narcotic, contagious, infectious, catching, taking, epidemic, zymotic, epizootic, innutritious, indigestible, ungenial, uncongenial, deadly.

Transference

N transfer, transference, translocation, elocation, displacement, metastasis, metathesis, removal, remotion, amotion, relegation, deportation, asportation, extradition, conveyance, draft, carrying, carriage, convection, conduction, contagion, transfer, transit, transition, passage, ferry, gestation, portage, porterage, carting, cartage, shoveling, vection, vecture, vectitation, shipment, freight, wafture, transmission, transport, transportation, importation, exportation, transumption, transplantation, translation, shifting, dodging, dispersion, transposition, traction, drift, transferred, drifted, movable, portable, portative, mailable, contagious, from hand to hand, from pillar to post, on the way, by the way, on the road, on the wing, under way, in transit, on course, as one goes, in transitu, en route, chemin faisant, en passant, in mid progress, in mid course.